Report: Keith Lee Signs Contract With WWE

Keith Lee has been one of the top talents on the independent wrestling scene for several months, and the WWE have reportedly signed the big man to a contract.

Last year in September, Keith Lee and Donovan Dijak put on a match at PWG’s Battle of Los Angles (BOLA) that received the full five stars from the Wrestling Observer News’s Dave Meltzer. Just days later, the WWE announced that they signed Dijak to a contract.

It has taken longer for Keith Lee to receive a deal from the WWE, but PWTorch.com’s Sean Radican reports that Lee has just signed with the company. Per Radican, Lee is expected to report to NXT’s Performance Center shortly, as he must fulfill some bookings with other promotions before officially joining.

Lee has dazzled audiences for years, and his matches with Dijak, either as an opponent or tag team partner, have been some of the best on the independent scene. Although Lee is billed at 332 pounds and is one of wrestling’s most powerful performers, he’s also incredibly agile. It’s uncanny how quickly Lee moves for a man of his size, and he isn’t short on charisma either.

Besides Lee’s matches with Dijak, his matches with Ricochet, who recently joined NXT and shined in a ladder match for the North American Championship at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, in promotions like PWG and WCPW (now Defiant Wrestling) were also remarkable. Lee was able to hang with a man as nimble and athletic as Ricochet, matching him move for move.

It will be exciting to see what Lee can accomplish in the WWE, but Radican notes in his report that there’s a feeling backstage that he will have to change his style a little bit. That much is obvious, and his success will reportedly depend on how willing he is to listen to the advice he receives from the coaches in the Performance Center.

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Regardless of the caveats, I can’t wait to watch Lee in NXT, and there are plenty of opponents, such as Dijak and Lars Sullivan, who could be perfect for him. This is huge news indeed, and it is just the latest marquee signing that WWE has made this year (Candice LeRae, EC3, Ricochet, and the War Raiders all signed in January).