Foundational Elements of Character
Two Titans of the Squared Circle
As an author, artist, and storyteller, I’ve often in life cited the world of professional wrestling as one of my biggest inspirations. Those who haven’t been stricken with “the sickness*”, and have not witnessed the combination of athleticism and pageantry that wrestling brings, tend to roll their eyes or dismiss wrestling as low brow entertainment without redeeming value. However, I would posit that wrestling is, in fact, the direct descendent of the entertainment of gods and kings. Drawing a throughline from gladiatorial battles in The Colosseum, to knights battling for their lives in the Middle Ages, to the original Olympic Games, humans have always competed in battles of strength. Modern professional wrestling takes these same ideals and distills them down into a balletic performance that achieves the same end goal, without the needless yet inevitable death of the competitors in combat. So, in that sense, wrestling is one of the oldest and most pure athletic artforms.
*”The Sickness” is what wrestlers and lifelong fans call the need to watch as much wrestling as one can, and to attend live events and just be as close to it as possible
The driving force of wrestling, and what differentiates it from “regular” competitive sports, is the fact that everyone in wrestling is a character. And the best, most memorable wrestlers, often have the biggest or most complex characters. Built on the foundational storytelling trope of good vs. evil, wrestlers embody characters and battle in the name of their alignment. Like any good movie or book, a compelling wrestling story will give you a hero to root for and a villain to despise. Among the many things that wrestling has taught me personally (like, a lot of geography, normalizing seeing people of many colors and origins interacting together, and much more), perhaps the greatest thing is how to tell this story of good triumphing over evil, over and over again, and how to make it interesting. This invariably requires interesting characters. Men and women who are made up of shades of grey, who make morally complex decisions, and who ultimately do the right thing (or don’t), to get what they want.
Two of the greatest characters to ever exist in this medium, and the subject of today’s writing, are Bray Wyatt and Brodie Lee. Two men that were taken from us too soon, but who left indelible impressions on their industry, and on those who had the pleasure of experiencing their particular form of magic in storytelling. Bray and Brodie are two of my favorite wrestlers, and two men who broadened my mind and showed me things I never thought possible within the world of professional wrestling storytelling.
Forever Exalted, digital watercolor and pencil, Ryan J. White 2024
Brodie Lee, born Jonathan Huber, was from Rochester, New York. Throughout his career he would go by several monikers, including Huberboy #2, “Big Rig” Brodie Lee, Luke Harper, and ultimately Mister Brodie Lee. I had the pleasure of seeing Brodie wrestle live, early in his career. Twice, at the Samurai Dojo in upstate New York, I was able to see him ply his craft. Even at this embryonic stage of his journey, it was evident that Brodie was destined to do great things. Standing at 6’ 5” and weighing 275 lbs., Brodie was an imposing figure. But, as any of his peers would attest, Brodie was a gentle giant. No matter what gimmick he portrayed, whether it was a sweaty trucker, swamp cult member, Viking-adjacent warrior, or angry CEO/cult leader, Brodie’s eyes were always soft and welcoming. I witnessed this firsthand when I met him after a match. He towered over me, but was one of the nicest wrestlers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.
“Professional wrestling is a beautiful yet cruel mistress. She will treat you well and treat you horribly, but outside of my family, it is my one true love.” - Brodie Lee
Brodie’s character shined through everywhere he went. On the independents, he was known for his hard hitting style in the ring. But it wasn’t until he signed a developmental deal with WWE (the biggest wrestling company) and joined up with Bray Wyatt that we really got to witness the breadth of Brodie’s abilities. Now going by Luke Harper, he was introduced as the “first son of the Wyatt Family”. The Wyatts, led by eerily charismatic swamp cult leader Bray, would rise through the ranks of the industry quickly, and become one of the most memorable acts in recent history. Brodie, depicted as a devoted follower, would often stand alongside his equally giant partner Erick Rowan, behind Wyatt, as Wyatt serenaded the crowd with his manifestos. Brodie’s job was to look intimidating and to offer an occasional “YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH” in affirmation to Bray.
“I remember going into [the boss’s] office and him telling me, ‘I want you to do a southern drawl.’ I was like, ‘Sir, I’m from Rochester, New York. I think it’s going to sound really fake.” - Brodie Lee
Despite being cast in a seemingly minor role as a background player, Brodie still connected with the audience in a major way. The crowd would routinely chant his “YEAHs” back at him. Brodie and his partner Erick Rowan would win a number of championships as a team, and Brodie would achieve singles gold in WWE only once. Although he was a crowd favorite and often part of the most compelling matches and stories whenever he was on, Brodie was sidelined for various behind-the-scenes political reasons. The machinations of the wrestling world offscreen are sometimes just as interesting and twisted as the stories they tell on screen. No matter what happened off screen, though, Brodie always took what he was given and turned it into the best version of the character that he could.
Brodie was so beloved by his peers that, despite lacking support from “the office”, the “boys” took it upon themselves to create custom merchandise to show their support. On a tour of Mexico, where Brodie’s Luke Harper character was receiving huge reactions from the live crowd, his friends noticed that there were no Luke Harper shirts for sale at the arena. So, they commissioned their own, presented them to Brodie backstage, and all took a picture together, to show their support for him.
After a brief but memorable run as “The Bludgeon Brothers” with Rowan, a viking-esque team of brutes with giant hammers that was not affiliated with Bray Wyatt, Brodie was once again sidelined for months for the aforementioned behind-the-scenes reasons. Brodie would ultimately leave WWE and join the upstart new promotion, All Elite Wrestling. It was here in AEW that Brodie was finally given center stage. Mister Brodie Lee appeared through a doorway, billowing smoke and blue laser light, and was revealed as The Exalted One, and head of The Dark Order, an eldritch cult full of masked minions. However, true to form, Brodie did not just echo his past association with a cult group. He turned Mister Brodie Lee into a unique and captivating character of his own. Mister Brodie Lee dressed in tailored suits and spoke like an out of touch CEO, berating those around him for not catering to his every whim. The Dark Order was revealed to be less of a cult and more like a multi-level marketing scam, akin to Scientology. Brodie’s characterization of this angry boomer CEO was informed by his previous boss, as well as mafia movies. But this was all outside the ring. Once Mister Brodie Lee entered the arena to fight, he was decked out in purple and black leather, adorned with Lovecraftian iconography. The duality of this character was striking. Menacing both inside the ring and out, for very different reasons.
There was also a third layer to this new personification of Mister Brodie Lee. While lording over his minions in The Dark Order, Brodie would appear on an internet show called Being The Elite. In these segments, Brodie would still shout at his followers, but he would also hit them with stacks of rolled up paper, then they would comically roll around on the ground like they had been shot. In one memorable instance, The Dark Order was meant to bring a wrestler named Jungle Boy (Jack Perry, fair haired son of 90s heartthrob Luke Perry) to their office to be interrogated. When they showed up with a similarly coiffured wrestler by the name of Griff Garrison, Brodie was livid. He berated John Silver that “this isn’t JUNGLE BOY, this is GRIFF GARRISON...” Silver’s iconic reply was “WHO THE F*** IS GRIFF GARRISON?!” to which Brodie retorted “THIS IS GRIFF GARRISON!” This comedic side of Mister Brodie Lee further illustrated the depth of his character and ability to convey emotions. In another skit, Sue Barretta, elderly mother of another wrestler named Trent Barretta, brought food to the Dark Order clubhouse. Brodie slammed the food down, which startled Sue. Then he gestured toward Silver and told her that “THIS GUY DOESN’T LIKE YOUR FOOD!” Brodie proceeded to hand Sue a stack of papers to throw at Silver. When Sue failed to hit him, Brodie yelled “YOU BETTER FALL THE F*** DOWN FOR SUE!”
With this complex character at the center of The Dark Order, Brodie would reach new heights as he defeated AEW’s most popular wrestler at the time, Cody Rhodes, for the TNT Championship in what is widely regarded as the best Dog Collar Match* in wrestling history.
*a Dog Collar Match pits two competitors against each other, wearing collars that are attached by a twenty foot long chain, the idea being that the chain can be used as a weapon as well as a means to keep either wrestler from escaping the ring.
Unfortunately, that would be the last time we would see Brodie on TV, as he fell ill to a mysterious lung ailment. After a short battle, Jon Huber passed away of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis on December 26, 2020. He was 41.
Follow The Buzzards, digital watercolor and pencil, Ryan J. White 2026
Two men, brought together by fate, destined to dance the dance for eternity. You cannot talk about Brodie Lee without talking about his confidant and running mate, Bray Wyatt. Bray, born Windham Rotunda, was from Brooksville Florida. Bray was born into the wrestling business. He was a third generation star, following his grandfather, Blackjack Mulligan, his father, Mike Rotunda, and his uncles, Barry and Kendall Windham. Bray had wrestling in his blood. So it was with no small amount of fanfare and expectation that he appeared on WWE TV for the first time as Husky Harris in 2010.
The problem was, Husky Harris had no character. He was just a guy. A football guy whose dad and grandpa wrestled. Despite referring to him as “a Sherman tank with a Ferrari engine”, Husky Harris was not going anywhere. So, after a brief run on TV, Husky Harris was sent back to the minor leagues to be “repackaged”.
“I am the color red in a world full of black and white.” - Bray Wyatt
Little did they know, after a conversation with mentor and wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, the Bray Wyatt character would emerge. Windham had been trying to come up with something to make him stand out in a roster full of athletic specimens. In NXT (the aforementioned “minor league”), the wrestlers would attend “promo classes”. Windham tried out his new character here, mixing elements from movie villains and real life villains alike, modulating his voice, and speaking in hushed tones as opposed to the typical shouting favored by most wrestlers. Dusty was intrigued by this new approach and suggested that Windham attend his upcoming jury duty completely in character. He did this, without breaking. Bray Wyatt was born.
“I didn’t make the world the way it is…you did.” - Bray Wyatt
Bray would debut on NXT TV in white pants, a Hawaiian button up shirt, and straw hat, in a Florida swamp. Preaching to a gaggle of seated followers, Bray proclaimed that he “can no longer feel the fears of men. What are they going to do when they realize that they can no longer hurt me? What can they...”. A mix of Robert DeNiro from Cape Fear, Jim Jones, and former bizarre wrestler Waylon Mercy, Bray Wyatt was an enigmatic and compelling force of charisma. He attracted followers quickly. The First Son of the Wyatt Family would be Luke Harper, followed shortly after by The Second Son, Erick Rowan. These two behemoths would accompany Wyatt as he monologued about the ills of the world, and how he alone was the answer. The lore of the Wyatt Family ran deep. Bray would often reference Sister Abigail (presumably his sister who had died tragically, but also possibly a supernatural force, or both).
“You will become their leader,’ she said. ‘Your voice will soothe their ears and your hand will lead their armies. For you are the way into the City of Woe. You are the way to go among the lost. Beyond time, Bray, you stand.” - Sister Abigail, via Bray Wyatt
Wyatt would proselytize about a coming war, and the solution being salvation by no one but himself. The ranks of the Wyatt Family would grow, they would win championships, and soon be back on WWE TV as a unit. This new character was an unqualified success.
“The wolf will never lose sleep, for fear of the sheep. Cos no one ever told the sheep, they outnumber the wolf.” - Bray Wyatt
The Wyatts’ success would propel them to the main event scene within months of being back on WWE TV. Feuds with top stars like Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Randy Orton, and John Cena confirmed that the Wyatts were destined for greatness. Videos of Bray, in abandoned houses, using an old rocking chair as his pulpit, would play in arenas across the United States. The message of the Wyatts was spreading.
However, as with Brodie Lee, Bray would fall victim to backstage politics and creative disagreements. With a mind like his, it’s inevitable that Bray would be protective of his ideas and plans. And in a world like professional wrestling, where creative decisions are dictated from the top down, that is a recipe for conflict. Bray would be split from his group, be pushed up and down the card, and repackaged more than once.
Inevitably, Bray would find success with several variations of his cult leader persona, eventually capturing the WWE Championship, the top prize in the industry. The Wyatt Family would be reformed multiple times, with members familiar and new, but never to the same degree of success as the original. Finally, after a tag team with Matt Hardy was disbanded, Bray Wyatt, The Eater of Worlds, once again found himself being sent home, and off TV.
It was during this second hiatus that Bray realized he had to do something drastic to change his character and resurrect his career. So, nearly a year after being removed from his position, mysterious vignettes starting airing on TV, showing a strange buzzard puppet. Then, more puppets appeared. Eventually, these bizarre creatures would introduce us to the host of their new show. Bray Wyatt, looking like a muscled up Mr. Rogers, debuted as the host of the Firefly Funhouse, a twisted take on a children’s show, complete with saccharine theme song and rainbow colored logo. This version of Bray, slimmed down and cleaned up, was a far cry from his swamp cult origins. He spoke not as a fire-and-brimstone preacher, but like Steve from Blues Clues. So, this new cheery, sweater clad Bray and his group of merry puppet friends, would act out things like lessons on sharing, or the word of the day. But the Firefly Funhouse always ended with a more sinister tone. Red lights would shine, and Bray would proclaim for us to “Let Me In” so he can “light the way”. As it turns out, by letting him in, Bray would be able to morph into the second part of his new persona, a horror movie nightmare writ large, The Fiend.
The Fiend was a jacked up Joker. A demonic clown, with jagged teeth, a scarred up face, and dreadlocks. The wrestling arena would be bathed in red light, an eerie screeching sound blaring over the loudspeaker, and this real life hellion would appear behind his opponents and decimate them. The Fiend wasn’t like other wrestlers. There was no back and forth. No give and take, to tell a story of triumph over adversity. The Fiend was a nigh-invincible killer who left bodies in his wake. After destroying countless opponents and once again becoming the world champion, Bray would show up on his children’s show with the typical gold and jewel encrusted world title. But when he turned into The Fiend, he would come down to the ring in his horror film legend Tom Savini Studios designed mask, and bring with him a championship belt that appeared to be made of human skin, with The Fiend’s face front and center.
In short, Bray Wyatt had reinvented himself yet again, into not one but two of the most memorable characters that wrestling had ever seen. He would entertain (and creep out) everyone doing The Muscle Man Dance with his cadre of puppet characters, and then legitimately give people nightmares as the undead clown killer. Ultimately, however, Bray would fall victim to a backstage power struggle that led to even this, the most successful version of himself, being fired from the company.
Once again, Wyatt did what he always does and reinvented himself. After more than a year off, QR codes started appearing on TV that would take viewers to mysterious videos. These videos were accompanied by a song called The White Rabbit. Different in tone to his previous work, it was unclear what these videos would reveal. During this hiatus, Bray’s former partner and friend Brodie Lee had passed away. So, upon the conclusion of the White Rabbit teasers, Bray reappeared at the Extreme Rules event, through a very similar doorway billowing smoke and blue lights, as a tribute to his fallen brother. This time, however, Bray seemed to be more himself. He was what wrestlers call a “babyface”, meaning a hero character. The White Rabbit teasers and subsequent videos showed that this new Bray would be accompanied by real life versions of his puppet friends, as well as a new character named Uncle Howdy (played by Bray’s brother Bo). On his first TV appearance after this reveal and reinvention, Bray spoke to the people in an unusually candid manner.
“This right here, this is just me OK? This is a version of me I never got to introduce to you guys before. This is just me being me – genuine me – for the first time.” He continued, “I lost my career. I lost my self-confidence. I lost two people who were very, very close to me. I lost my way,” “And I got to a point where I thought that everything that I’ve ever done here or otherwise, it was all meaningless. Nothing I’ve ever did has ever mattered to anyone. And I was wrong.”
“... But these people they would come to me. They would come to me, and they would say, ‘Bray, I just wanted to thank you, man, because I was in a time of need, and I lost people that were close to me, and I lost my self-confidence, and I felt weak, and I felt vulnerable, and in this weakened state I found your words, Bray. I found your words, and I just wanted to thank you, man. You saved my life, Bray.” He would go on to say, “...the thing about that is, is that I can sit here right now today, and I can look all of you in the eyes, and I can say you were there when I was weak, when I was vulnerable, when I was down, and I just wanted to say, ‘Thank you, you all saved my life.’”
As this new, more real version of Bray Wyatt poured his heart out on the screen, a mysterious masked character appeared and we were left to wonder, how long would it be before The Fiend, or some other demonic manifestation reappeared? Sadly, after only one more match, and a few more appearances to set up future stories, Bray disappeared from TV. It was reported that he was dealing with an “unconventional medical issue”. Months later, rumors swirled that he was gearing up for a return to TV. Then, on the evening of August 24th, 2023, Wyatt laid down to take a nap and never returned. He died of a heart attack related to a previous COVID-19 infection. He was 36.
Saved You A Seat, digital pencil, Ryan J. White 2023
The characters that these two men embodied over the course of their lives were undeniably thrilling, compelling, and memorable. The impact that they had on me, both in my enjoyment of wrestling, and in my writing style, are immeasurable. I like to imagine that, up in the cosmos, among the celestial bodies, Brodie Lee created a space in the darkness for the two of them, and when he knew Bray Wyatt was coming, Brodie prepared his old rocking chair so that they could tell each other their stories until time immemorial. When Brodie passed, Bray said
“We changed this whole game because we refused to do it any way but OUR way. We were always at our best when we were a team I think we both knew it. We fought like brothers because we were...This isn’t how it was supposed to be, it was supposed to be us fat, bald and useless running Wyatt Family spots in high school gyms in our 70’s. Where do we go now?”
And in my mind, that’s where they are. Among the stars. Together.
