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The wrestling world mourned the passing of Brodie Lee to end a very turbulent 2020. As you may have imagined by the reactions, Brodie Lee was a respected figure in the professional wrestling community.
Brodie Lee became a household name as Luke Harper when he was in the WWE, but many fans believed that he was perennially underutilized in Vince McMahon's company.
Brodie Lee, real name Jon Huber, was considered one of the best big men in the WWE, but he was primarily pushed as Bray Wyatt's sidekick or tag team performer.
Arn Anderson was a guest on the recent edition of the Talk is Jericho podcast, and the former WWE producer revealed details of a character pitch he made for Luke Harper.
Anderson had a compelling character in mind for Brodie Lee to portray in the WWE. Anderson said that the gimmick could have been more terrifying than anything anybody has seen before. Arn Anderson pitched for Lee to have a 'Unabomber' inspired character.
"'He's too intelligent when he speaks.' I had a character for him that would have been awesome, as frightening as anybody has been. What about the guy that looks like that, especially when he wore the dirty, dingy white 'wife-beater,' and it was even a little muddy even on some nights.
In case you didn't know, The Unabomber, real name Ted Kaczynski, is a convict currently serving eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The Unabomber was a brilliant maths prodigy who pursued a primitive lifestyle and went on to carry out a sinister bombing campaign in the 1970s. The Unabomber was an anti-technologanarchist who was at the center of a long and expensive FBI investigation.
Anderson continued:
"What if you got a shot from somebody in a tree or something, and you're shooting into a window, and you got a single light bulb, and it really looks like a primitive, almost I'm expecting the camera to pan down like you got some guy tied up and you're torturing them or something. What if that guy is sitting with a computer, and he's rattling away. And you made that guy The Unabomber."
They looked at me like I got six heads: Arn Anderson on the reaction to his character pitch for Brodie Lee, fka Luke Harper
Arn Anderson attempted to lay out his creative pitch in front of WWE management, but he didn't receive a favorable response.
"He's brilliant. He's making stuff. He's going over the injuries. He somehow got ahold of all the records of all the crew with their injuries. What is he going to attack next, kind of game planning. His voice is eloquent. You make him a genius. How scary would that guy have been? Well, when I tried to lay that out to creative, they looked at me like I got six heads as you can imagine." H/t WrestlingInc
It was widely reported that Vince McMahon didn't see much in Brodie Lee as the WWE boss wasn't happy with the former Wyatt Family member's inability to do a southern accent. Arn Anderson believed that Brodie Lee deserved better as the former IC Champion was a very gifted performer with a diverse skillset.
Brodie Lee, fka Luke Harper's case is another example of how many promising creative ideas never make it to TV.
