RIP Luke Harper/Brodie Lee

This is a really shocking and big loss for the business. If you look at the AEW Twiiter account, it's pages of praise for him from practically everyone who knew or heard of him. He got to show his talent occasionally in his WWE run and I think the best was ahead of him. He finally had a chance to shine as a singles star on a global platform and we were all robbed of that.  He shared his love of his family with everyone and wore that love on his sleeves - they will miss him the most. Rest in Peace.

Sad news indeed. His WWE singles run confused me as he was surely everything Vince loves - a big man who can actually work and he certainly looked the part. I read earlier that it was a lung problem, which you don't expect to hear from athletes who are generally quite fit. 41 is too soon which makes this news even sadder.

Far too young! Blessings to his family and friends. And I really do hope this wasn't caused from that Dog Collar match earlier this year. Rest in Peace Jon.

I think he had an underlying lung condition so took time off after that match but then it got worse while he was off. I don't think the match had anything to do with it.

After taking some time to reflect on his passing, I wrote a piece about Jon Huber. It wasn't particularly written for anyone, but I figured I'll post it here:

Jon Huber
1979-2020

There is a rich and tragic history between death and professional wrestling. The same could probably be said for many industries, but in professional wrestling it has been particularly relevant. There was a time when wrestlers were dying left and right, at ridiculously early ages, often to drugs or steroid abuse. Thankfully, that era of wrestling is behind us and drug-related deaths have reduced dramatically over the past decade.

But as we are too often reminded, tragedy still strikes. In what has been a year of tragedy given the worldwide pandemic, there was a non-pandemic related tragedy in the summer, when former WWE superstar Shad Gaspard died in a horrifying incident at the beach, where he drowned in the ocean saving his son. Shad Gaspard died a hero and many expressed fond memories of him, since he had not been in the public eye for a long time.

After such a devastating loss not only to the fans who remember him, but also his own family and friends, hearing of the passing of Jon Huber on December 26th was the one-two gut punch combo for wrestling fans everywhere.

I have always been a massive fan of Brodie Lee, or as he was known when I first became familiar with him, Luke Harper. I had heard his name “Brodie Lee” before his debut in NXT as Luke Harper, but I had never seen his work. Harper was the true first impression of Jon Huber for me. He had this unique appearance of a guy picked up from some shady streets where there was an illegal fight club happening in an abandoned warehouse. Combining that with his alliance with Bray Wyatt, and the swamp cult gimmick gave us the Luke Harper we came to know.

Harper was intimidating and wrestled in the way you would expect a powerhouse to wrestle, but he also possessed surprising agility, and his intelligence in the ring was always on display. He was very clearly a thinking wrestler. He knew what to do to incite the response he wanted at any given time, and he knew how to tell a story. As a heel, he always thrived in making the faces look good. He wasn’t afraid to put anyone over.

His run in WWE, which lasted the better part of a decade, from 2012 - 2019, was a good one. While he never reached the upper echelon of stardom there, he enjoyed an iconic run as a member of the Wyatt family, highlighted by their equally illustrious feud with The Shield that really put both stables on the map as legit stars.

Harper even had success in singles runs, winning the Intercontinental Championship in 2014 and being involved in high profile feuds with the likes of Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton. However, there was always that belief from many fans that he had so much more to give, a potential that we had yet to see unlock in WWE and when his run with WWE came to a slow, gruelling halt, which left him off TV for months at a time, fans were delighted to see him debut in All Elite Wrestling and feature as a legit main eventer.

The time he spent in AEW was the best work of his career. Mr Brodie Lee, as he was called at this point and would come to be known until his death, revitalised a floundering faction in The Dark Order with a breath of fresh air, and a new lick of paint on his already established persona. With this transformation, he became not only a spectacle in the ring but also on the mic, something which he had only limited chances to do at WWE. Every week, Brodie Lee was capturing the attention of more and more fans and when he won the AEW TNT Championship against Cody Rhodes in dominating fashion, it felt like a truly earned milestone in his career for all of the hardcore fans. Finally, Mr Brodie Lee was reaching his potential.

When Mr Brodie Lee lost the title in a rematch, a Dog Collar match, and took a couple of weeks off, most of us didn’t think anything of it. It made sense to keep him off TV after losing such a gruelling match, if only to put over Cody’s victory all the more. That match was a great one and really highlighted two of AEW’s biggest stars. None of us knew it would be the last time we would see Jon Huber wrestle.

I was always a fan of Job Huber. He was up there with Daniel Bryan and Jon Moxley as my modern favourites, and I have followed them all for years. It was only in his death that I realised I took his talent for granted. I knew he was good. I knew he was far better than most people thought he was. I knew he was an extremely underrated talent. But I think even I underrated him, because I knew he hadn’t reached his heights yet. And that realisation gave me all the more reason to dive back into his catalogue, find some old favourites and even experience some new ones from his pre-WWE days, and just appreciate the fantastic entertainment watching Jon Huber perform always was.

Jon Huber will be there with a plethora of other wrestlers, gone before their time, sometimes in the prime of their careers, leaving behind not only a career and a fanbase, but countless friends and loved ones. Watching the outpouring of love and appreciation for Jon Huber since the news broke from wrestlers, producers and executives (as well as many fans) from pretty much every major wrestling promotion in the world only spoke to his candid likeability and loving kindness he offered genuinely to everyone around him. He was a main event star, he was a main event father and a main event husband. His legacy will be marked in the annals of wrestling history forever, and wrestling has lost part of its beating heart with this loss.

The one thing I want anyone reading this to take away is we can honour Jon Huber (and anyone else we lost this year, personally or otherwise) by appreciating what he left behind and never forgetting his contribution. Huber died at the age of 41; but he lives on as long as he is remembered.

I won’t forget him.

And the day of the week doesn’t really matter, because as Huber himself often said:
It’s today. You know what that means.

That was very nice and touching Rhys. Excellent post and tribute. I enjoyed reading that. ?