Tony Khan pulled back the curtain a bit on putting the Brodie Lee Tribute Show together, including how Erick Redbeard ended up on the broadcast.
Khan was this week’s guest on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and talked about how quickly the show was put together due to the sudden passing of Brodie Lee. Khan mentioned that as difficult as the show was, some of the small, personal details that people came up with helped make things even better.
“Lance Archer came up with it, where he [dressed in Brodie’s old ring attire], that was his idea,” Khan said. Renee then pointed out having Erick Redbeard [Erick Rowan] there on AEW Dynamite and Tony said it was Shawn Spears’ idea to get him involved.
“That was Spears’ idea. It was like the day before, and he asked if I wanted to use Erick Redbeard. I said ‘I would like to use Erick Redbeard, that’s a great idea. I’d probably have him come out in the middle of the show and do this thing with Dark Order and Hangman’,” Khan explained, “that spot with them, and then at the end with Brodie and Amanda. That’s why we did it that way.”
Despite his surprise appearance on Dynamite, Redbeard has reportedly not signed with AEW. Redbeard was released by WWE in April 2020 and has appeared on United Wrestling Network’s Prime Time Live since then but he remains a free agent as of this time.
Renee also says her takeaway from the entire ordeal was how Amanda kept telling her how great AEW was through everything, crediting their communication and support for getting them through such a difficult time. Khan said that AEW is just trying to help a family get through a traumatic loss the best way that they could.
“Omega has been so supportive of him and Cody has spent so much time with him, different people on the roster really enjoy him. He loves being around, he loves wrestling so much,” Khan said, “we’re just trying to give him enough stuff to help him develop his wrestling mind and frankly, to occupy his wrestling mind in a really difficult time.”
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