AEW: The brilliance of Brodie Lee’s character goes beyond parody

Brodie Lee is already blossoming in AEW, and while his character is very much a parody of Vince McMahon, it clearly goes beyond that.

When we were told that the Dark Order had an “Exalted One”, our minds unsurprisingly wandered to the supernatural, leading us to believe Matt Hardy would be positioned as the leader of AEW‘s biggest faction (biggest in terms of size, at least).

Instead, we were given a mental reset when Brodie Lee was revealed as the leader, which led to an even more pronounced resetting of our expectations when his first skit made it clear that he was, at least partially, a Vince McMahon caricature.

Lee bellows at his underlings if they dare to eat before he finishes eating. He throws them out for sneezing. If they aren’t suited up for success, a verbal dressing-down is in order. And if they disappoint him inside the ring, he’ll punish them far more than their opponents ever could.

The unbridled arrogance – you have to call him “Mr. Brodie Lee” – combined with references to anecdotes of Vince’s, um, “quirks” make it clear that Lee is taking shots at the businessman and monopolizing wrestling promoter who derailed his career. For Lee, it’s probably personal.

But Lee isn’t stupid. He knows that the character can’t just be a parody of Vince, otherwise there’s no future to it. It would be quite the cruel twist of fate if Lee’s own undoing in AEW and inability to prove Vince’s increasingly shaky judgement definitively wrong was the result of a misguided parody that dragged on for too long.

The bits that qualify as parody, however, are merely a part of the picture. Lee’s outlandish, morally depraved, power-hungry, and disgustingly misleading character are a sharp critique on the broader issues with corporate toxic masculinity and its brainwashing.

At its essence, The Dark Order is a cult. However, there’s nothing mystical about what Lee’s doing. It is sinister, yes, but its evil lies in how pervasive this culture is. There’s nothing supernatural about the way corporations brainwash people, promising them “success” and “power”, utilizing dangerous metaphors of hunting or personifying a sort of crushing of weakness. The toxic masculinity and false promises are embedded in our society, justifying a never-ending rat race that makes pawns out of a large number of people for the sole benefit of the few.

In that way, Brodie Lee is the ultimate evil boss. None of the members of The Dark Order stand to benefit from his existence, as much as he gloats on and on about how he can bring them “success. He offers benefits in the most nebulous of terms, never concretely identifying what he can actually bring to the table. Lee prays on others’ insecurities, putting on a façade of toughness and strength to both keep others “in line” and justify his tenuous, undeserving standing alone at the top of the faction.

Lee, in many ways, represents everything we hate about the power structures and their dynamics in our world. So “Mr.” Brodie Lee isn’t just a Vince McMahon parody. He’s a representation of toxicity, abuse of power, and brainwashing, which we see in the corporate world, college campuses, and, yes, cults.

Thus, there’s so much more to explore here beyond Lee referencing his own self-determination in leaving the WWE structure he likely has immense distaste for, including a commentary surrounding his eventual downfall as The Exalted One.