During the latest episode of Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Tony Khan opened up about putting together the Brodie Lee ‘Celebration of Life’ show last month.
Khan noted that people in AEW knew that Brodie Lee was ill for quite some time, and emphasised that Amanda Huber asked those in the company to keep what they’d been told about Brodie’s health a secret:
“People knew for along time Jon was sick, we told every wrestler. Amanda went out an told people that Jon is not doing well and he needs your prayers and your thoughts but also he needs you not to tell anybody. And a lot of us were worried when she told the entire crew at once. But everybody kept it secret and supported them. And we did everything we could, and then when it came time all the wrestlers wanted to do something really nice for him. And I knew the tributes were going to be genuine and from the heart.”
The AEW President also spoke to Renee Paquette about putting together the special Celebration of Life tribute show to Brodie Lee on December 30th, noting that Dave Meltzer helped with the planning:
“I had a missed call from Dave Meltzer. And I called Dave back. And he asked me what we were going to do, and I told him ‘I actually don’t know’. And this was like, at this point 2/3 in the morning. And I put the pencil to paper after I got off the phone with Dave and that’s when I came up with the idea that The Dark Order [will be] represented in all the matches. Teaming with babyfaces in every match. To make it clear that we’re painting them in a brighter light, in a heroic light. And the story of the night would be, can The Dark Order get the clean sweep? Can they sweep all these matches?”
The show ended with a heart-warming video package to honour Brodie Lee, featuring pictures from his past. The pictures were played over “The Ol’ 55” by Tom Waits, which Tony Khan revealed he bought the rights to:
“We knew that the tributes would be from the heart. And I knew that there would be great videos. And I had gotten the rights to the song in advance, hoping that Brodie was going to kick out, but knowing that the doctor said it was not a high percent chance. And I wanted to make sure that we weren’t behind the 8 Ball as far as getting him the greatest tribute video possible.”
Thanks to Inside The Ropes for the transcription.
