Evil Uno and Stu Grayson on asking Brodie Lee to lead the Dark Order
Despite a rough start in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), The Dark Order has found their niche as part of the young promotions expansive, but colorful midcard, and they owe a lot of that newfound credibility to the late Brodie Lee.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Lee debuting in AEW as the Dark Order’s “Exalted One”, a revelation that not only gave Lee a chance to shed away the later, underwhelming portions of his WWE career, but also breathed new life into a group that few fans took seriously as a legitimate heel faction.
But if you ask the Dark Order’s founding members, Evil Uno and Stu Grayson, bringing in their former CHIKARA roster mate as the group’s leader wasn’t a sure thing.
Evil Uno and Stu Grayson were hesitant to ask Brodie Lee to become Dark Order’s leader.
Appearing on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, the team formerly known as the Super Smash Brothers said this about Lee becoming Dark Order’s figurehead (h/t to Fightful’s Robert DeFelice for the transciption):
"“With The Exalted One, we’re about to do the best work of our lives with the guy that was our best friend for so long. When Brodie was coming over, at first, we weren’t even sure if we should propose to him to be The Exalted One because he had been in a team the whole time, he’s probably going to want to have a singles run. He was like, ‘No. I’m fucking in guys, let’s do this!”"
After Lee took on that leadership role, he established himself as one of the industry’s best big men, taking then-AEW World Champion Jon Moxley to his limits at Double or Nothing 2020 and squashing Cody Rhodes to win the TNT Championship on the August 22, 2020 edition of AEW: Dynamite. He held the title for 46 recognized days before losing the title back to Cody in a Dog Collar Match on the October 7, 2020 episode of Dynamite.
Sadly, Lee passed away on December 26, 2020 due to lung complications. AEW honored his life and career the following Wednesday with a much-celebrated tribute show. Since then, Dark Order has transitioned into a babyface role, moving away from the evil cult schtick in favor of leaning into their presentation on Being the Elite.
Next. The Brodie Lee Tribute Show was a thing of beauty. dark
You can listen to the full podcast at this link.