Amanda Huber Remembers Her Husband Jon

December 15, 2021 11:50 AM

Amanda Huber, of All Elite Wrestling's Community Outreach Team, shares her memories of her husband Jon, aka Huberboy #2, aka Luke Harper, aka Mr. Brodie Lee. Who, by the way, really had a gift for extracting comedy from a rolled up bunch of paper.
posted by Ipsifendus (10 comments total)

I can't believe it's almost a year since he died. What a year this has been in professional wrestling.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 12:13 PM on December 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

You can’t help yourself. You can’t help trying to kick out.

god DAMN it.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:11 PM on December 15, 2021

Great, heartbreaking, article.

The Player's Tribune is full of really well-written articles from athletes in a variety of sports. Read some of the other stories; you'll enjoy them.
posted by blob at 2:32 PM on December 15, 2021

This is a really beautiful tribute I've been avoiding reading until I had some time to cry.
posted by Tesseractive at 2:42 PM on December 15, 2021

Huber was an amazing wrestler, and from everything I’ve seen, a fantastic person. For anyone watching the paper link above who might not know much about him, there was a lot of talk about how his character in his AEW run as the Exalted One of the Dark Order was basically a parody of Vince McMahon, which might help non-wrestling folks understand why people loved this guy who seemed, in his last run, to be such a complete dick. The character was pretty much the opposite of who he was.

He wasn’t a dick, he just played one on TV.
posted by Ghidorah at 3:23 PM on December 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

Apologies if it's inappropriate to post here, but I've been posting AEW Dynamite threads on Fanfare starting about three months ago.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:01 PM on December 15, 2021

If anyone hasn't seen it, Amanda also did an interview on AEW's Unrestricted podcast (youtube video link) in February of this year where she told the story of Jon's illness and passing in full (I think for the first time in public).

The podcast episode that Amanda mentioned Jon recording on the evening of the first day he felt unwell is this one.

I catch feelings every time I see "-1" (Brodie Jr, their older son) on AEW's shows or the various behind-the-scenes youtube channels (Being The Elite and Sammy Guevara's vlog being the ones I watch). Sad for his and his family's loss, but so warmed to see the love and support they are getting from the company and all of the performers.
posted by BuxtonTheRed at 11:55 AM on December 16, 2021

What a touching piece. Kudos to Amanda for writing it.

Pulmonary fibrosis is a beast. I work on a research team that's trying to understand it better and when I got to the part of the story where the description of his condition started to appear... my heart dropped into my stomach. It's appalling how dramatically he declined in so short a period of time. Medicine still has so, so far to go.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 4:24 AM on December 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

I loved to hate Brodie Lee, I was heartbroken at his passing. What a talented person he was.
posted by winna at 10:16 AM on December 17, 2021

I’m encouraged by the fact there’s this virtue in the truth she writes about, as life leaves its path of riches and destruction. Maybe that is the best chance you have at strength and happiness. I’m frightened by the obvious truth that luck is the thing separating many of us from indelible tragedy, but I guess it’s all in shades and degrees. There’s a quote I read on the wall of the NYC Bryant Park F/BDQ subway, ‘nature must not win the game, but she cannot lose’. And ignoring that our destiny is loss and taking our luck for granted is the better use of our time, provides more energy to be fulfilled, and to be as whole and present as we can manage.
posted by allisterb at 6:50 AM on December 19, 2021