AEW: 5 dream opponents for Brodie Lee in All Elite Wrestling

The Wednesday Night Wars are heating up again with the rumored leap of former NXT and Smackdown Tag Team champion and Intercontinental Champion Brodie Lee (fka Luke Harper) to TNT’s AEW.

Brodie Lee, who requested and was later granted his release from the WWE last November, is at a crossroads.

Brodie, who recently celebrated his 40th birthday, joined WWE in 2012 and over the last eight years has been a mainstay on our television screens, from dominating NXT as the first son of the Wyatt family to his dominant return after a lengthy injury alongside fellow former Wyatt family member Erick Rowan as the sadistic and utterly terrifying Bludgeon Brothers. The duo became one of the most dominant forces on WWE television until their disbanding during the last Superstar Shake-Up.

Now that he’s gone, can he step out of the WWE spotlight and prove to his doubters that he is better than the booking he was saddled with, or does he flounder in his newfound freedom to slowly fade to the undercard?

I have compiled a list of five current AEW wrestlers that would best serve to demonstrate Brodie Lee’s ability to perform at the high level that fans have come to expect from All Elite Wrestling.

PAC

PAC is another WWE defector that has built his rising star in the land of the rising sun similar to AEW co-founder Cody Rhodes.

Unlike Rhodes and the rest of the Elite contingent, though, he reinvented himself in the promotion Dragon Gate. Going so far with the promotion to win its top title, the Open The DreamGate Championship becoming the 28th person to hold the title as well as the ninth longest holder of the strap.

PAC’s time in AEW has, unfortunately, been less than memorable as he has struggled to find his groove. While his matches with Kenny Omega have been impressive, PAC’s overbearing dominance and arrogance displayed in Dragon Gate have not translated as clearly to AEW.

The subtlety of the character that was so masterfully displayed in Dragon Gate has unfortunately fallen flat in front of AEW crowds. In a room full of very serious Japanese performers, PAC’s arrogance shines. In a room full of western performers, it leaves us asking what’s so great and different about this guy?

The best hope for PAC to connect with a western audience that last saw him perform on 205 Live is facing off with an equally physically imposing opponent with unnamed potential and more than a slight penchant for violence.

Someone who can push him to display the in-ring acumen that lead to him becoming the face of a Japanese promotion and made people excited to see his work stateside again. His best hope for salvaging his time in AEW is Brodie Lee.