AEW Booms and Duds: Brodie Lee and Matt Hardy debut

Boom: an obvious but great selection

While I had been hoping for Scorpio Sky, the actual reveal of The Exalted One just worked. Hardy was the popular choice, but the second was Brodie Lee (fka Luke Harper). Well:

The obviousness of this selection dates to his past as a member of The Wyatt Family, particularly its early cult-like days. Still, it works. Why?

One, Brodie Lee is fantastic in the ring. His size stands out, but for such a big man, he is rather athletic. His offense is stiff, he has a unique move set, wonderful facial expressions, and a good sense of ring psychology. Along with Archer, his signing brings a different size to what is mostly a homogeneously-sized men’s roster.

Two, his presence itself is that of a brooding, creepy, scary man. What better person to lead a brooding, creepy, trying-to-be-scary group of wrestlers?

Third, and most importantly, this man can deliver a good promo. He was never really given the chance in WWE, but along with that presence, he understands how to use his voice, his face, his eyes, and his body language to send a message.

The line of the night was, “Mr. Daniels, I assure you, you are not the first out-of-touch old man to not believe in me, but I will make damn sure you are the last.” You just have to love how such a sinister character refers to Daniels as “Mr. Daniels,” and of course, the shot at Vince McMahon.

Am I the only one who thinks it’s more creepy when an evil character refers to people with honorifics?

Lee, as The Exalted One, is most likely set to be a singles act. He can delegate Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds to work tag, trios, and eight-person matches while he focuses on singularly destroying Christopher Daniels (at first) and then others after (like The Elite). Uno and Grayson might focus on SCU, and Silver and Reynolds on a team like Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall.

While the last three signings of Archer, Lee, and Hardy do nothing to mitigate the lack of men of color in the singles division (partly why I wanted it to be Sky), they are undoubtedly great signings and should bring positives for AEW moving forward.