Think about the most dynamic and versatile performers. Shawn Michaels? Bret Hart? Kenny Omega? Hiroshi Tanahashi? Hell, even Ice JJ Fish?
But, when I think of dynamic performers ever or one of the most dynamic performers ever, I think of Keith Lee.
Not to be confused with the food critic that at one point, was called out for racism from a white guy, Keith Lee is THE person that after I hear/ read the name, I’ll say, “he’s in this show? I’m definitely watching this?” Why? Because he is to quote Sting’s WCW theme song, “He big as bull, & quick as a cat. He looks fine, he looks cool. He’s own man, & he’s nobody’s fool”
The first time I heard of his name was from a Q&A session at the Internet Darling show in 2016 curated by Wrestling With Wregret’s Brian Zane and many other wrestling content creators where they list out potential black WWE champions. The first name that was brought up by one of those creators was Keith Lee.
Being a curious Andy, I decided to watch some of his bouts on YouTube so you could imagine how excited I was when Titan Towers announced that they signed the guy and a part of the yellow brand.
But then, I watched his first several months in NXT and I was initially disappointed.
However, watching 2018 WWE and how ungodly awful the episodes were made me feel grateful that Keith Lee wasn’t on the main roster at that point and called himself “Bearcat” later in his tenure with WWE because that would be silly, am I right (Wait, that happened? Can’t say I’m surprised)?
Things picked up for Lee as he had some banger after banger after banger with Dominik Djakovic as well as his showdown with the likes of Roman Reigns at Survivor Series 2019 and Brock Lesnar the following year at the 2020 Royal Rumble match (the same match that saw a return of a significant figure in the Ruthless Aggression era after almost a decade long hiatus with WWE, you know, MVP).
His main roster run was nothing to write home about but the elite brand signed him and to a shock and anger of no one besides the unwashed, unclean, unshowered and odorful fanboys, it’s better than his WWE run.
Why? Well, his tenure as a tag team with Shane “Swerve” Strickland alone created the best “odd duo” tag teams in the promotion’s short history and the team was enhanced even further thanks to Rick Ross.
Unfortunately, the team is no more. I don’t know where Ross is currently but he’s probably in a chopper he just bought cause the last one got confiscated flying to the city where the Christians hate it.
On and all, Keith Lee is basically Luis in the Ant man movies in that you haven’t thought of him but after seeing him, you feel so happy that he’s there. Why is that? He is mudaf**kin Keith. Lee. That’s why
