There was a time when Keith Lee looked like he was going to become the next big thing in WWE – literally. Measuring in at 6-foot-2, 332 pounds, Lee looks like an NFL nose tackle but moves like a luchador and has the ability to be one of the most special in-ring performers a promotion could ask for. Unfortunately, WWE wasn't into having a 6-foot-2, 332-pound monster of a man hitting Top Rope Suicidas or throwing Chad Gable-types across the room but instead a more generic “ooga booga” powerhouse who fits the company's typical mold.
Now free to work the way he wants in AEW, Lee was asked what it's like to be the flagbearer for super heavyweights in professional wrestling by Kazeem Famuyide of The Ringer's The Masked Man Show, Lee called the assertion strange, but he's willing to embrace the role.
“It’s strange,” Lee said. “It’s a little odd to even listen to a question that’s worded in that fashion. To think that I have some sort of legacy is humbling at the very least, but all in all, I would say that the inner me is very proud because all my life I have always been a very versatile individual and that’s something I kind of pride myself on. Even in my wiser time, there’s a lot I can still do, I just don’t because it would mean so much less.“
“You talk about being an enthusiast of big guys, I can tell you why that is, a lot of things big guys do is a spectacle. You have to fight to get the kind of things you want to see out of the match and the two guys in there are going to fight because neither one of them want to get picked up and dropped. They’re not used to it, it’s uncomfortable, it’s disconcerting, so when those things happen, it means something. It’s not something that happens in some rapid fashion, that doesn’t even allow the acknowledgment or registering of what has happened. That sh*t happens and you feel it right then and there. You can connect to it, you can visually see the effects of what’s happening and that makes it special.”
“And that is something I can attribute to all the way back in 2008, with my very first, I don’t like to bring up this company but my very first time as an extra for WWE. My very first talk with Undertaker and the very first piece of advice I ever received from someone who’s been there, done that, done it all, was, ‘take the things you do and make them mean something.’ And I think even in my wild times in 2017, I did a lot of making things still matter but it was at an accelerated rate and it wasn’t required, let’s put it that way.”
Though it's been a minute since he's been afforded a chance to showcase what he can do in AEW, Lee is a heavyweight champion-caliber performer who could be built into an all-time great performer worthy of headlining Pay-Per-View cards around the world. According to Lee, he's ready to take on that championship-caliber role, as he believes he can represent AEW with pride.
Keith Lee has his eyes on AEW's ultimate prize.
Later in his interview on The Masked Man Show, Lee and Famuyide delved into the topic of becoming the AEW World Champion, and “Limitless” let it be known that he feels he has all of the tools needed to become the top guy in AEW.
“Oh, I mean, let’s be honest here, any place or any time that an individual goes to a company, it doesn’t have to be sports related or physical, when you go somewhere, most people dream of being that number one talent, that number one person, that number one guy, whatever it may be,” Lee said. “The end goal is obviously to become AEW World Heavyweight Champion, and let’s be honest, I’m really good at making history. I would be black World Heavyweight Champion. I’m more than capable of doing that, I’m more than capable of carrying myself in a way that would be fitting and beneficial to a company.”
Is Lee the man who will unseat MJF as the AEW World Champion once his feud with Bryan Danielson comes to an end at Revolution? Will Tony Khan book him like the unstoppable babyface force who can dominate huge foes like Powerhouse Hobbs and match moves with Rey Fenix before throwing him 10 rows up into the crowd? Once his feud with Swerve Strickland and the Mogul Affiliates comes to a close, the options really are “Limitless.”
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