Brodie Lee Says Vince McMahon Only Saw Him As a Hillbilly Character, Describes Meeting in Vince’s Office, Reveals Ideas He Pitched to WWE

On the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho, Brodie Lee discussed his time in WWE and how Vince McMahon only saw him as a backwoods hillbilly type of character, two ideas he pitched to WWE, and Vince wanting him to do a southern drawl. Highlights are below.

Brodie Lee on how Vince McMahon only saw him as a backwoods hillbilly character: “So I think the way I do talk, Vince doesn’t see a person that looks like me talking like me. And I don’t think he could get over that. He saw a backwoods hillbilly who talked in a southern drawl, and being from Rochester, New York and being somewhat eloquent, he didn’t understand, and it just didn’t compute with him.”

Brodie Lee on Arn Anderson being one of his biggest supporters in WWE: “Arn I think was, maybe to the detriment, was one of my biggest supporters in meetings, and Arn would even say that, Arn would say, ‘Hey man, I’m just gonna stop speaking up for you because I don’t think it’s doing you any favors.’ So I had my supporters, just not vocal ones, not ones that were willing to go to bat for me to a point, and once I fell into a role, no matter what I pitched, no matter what I showed anybody, I wasn’t digging my way out of it to the audience of one.”

On two ideas he pitched to WWE: “I wanted to be a collector of some sort, almost like, I’m very into serial killers, and stuff like that, so I wanted to collect something from each person I would beat, and then the problem just become that I wasn’t beating anybody, so it’s hard to collect from people to do that. I also wanted to be maybe a smart monster, a very intelligent monster, where I can speak like I do in a very intelligent way and break my opponents down in a certain way that I wasn’t doing in the Wyatt Family, and then just have the same matches I was having, and look the same exact way, so be this slovenly character but just very also intelligent, almost like a Bruiser Brody, and again, I just don’t think he could see that way of talking.”

On Vince McMahon wanting him to do a southern drawl: “And I remember going into his office and him telling me, ‘Hey I want you to do a southern drawl.’ And I was like, ‘Sir, I’m from Rochester, New York, I think it’s going to sound really, really fake.’ And he goes, ‘Well, just do me a favor, we don’t want it to sound fake but do me a favor and try it.’ And I did it for him and he goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t like that.’ And so literally walked out thinking, ‘Well, that’s gone, that’s never gonna come up again.’ Then next week, in the script, specifically, Luke Harper, do a southern accent.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.