During an interview on Dynamite Download, The Dark Order’s Preston Vance spoke about his friendship with Brodie Lee Jr. (Negative 1), the son of the late Brodie Lee who tragically passed away in December 2020 following a lung disease. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Preston Vance on how he’s embraced wearing a mask in AEW: “When I got signed, I hated the mask, absolutely hated it. I didn’t understand the character, but I wasn’t going to say no, obviously. I didn’t understand. On the Indies, I never wore a mask, and I wasn’t this dark creepy person. That’s just not me. I’m like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ Now, I absolutely love it. It’s such another element to your image. Now you’re not just a body guy. Whether you’re a heel or babyface, you look like a real-life superhero or a real-life villain. It’s really cool. I let the fans create all my gear. Fans will tag me in sketches they do. I love fan art because I can’t draw, so it’s really cool. So, they’ll tag me in stuff and I’ll send it to a gear person and they kind of make it come to life. [The fans] are watching TV and they see me like, ‘Wow, I drew that.’ So, now it’s like they are always connected to me. I always look at it like, if I’m a kid watching and I drew something and sent it to a wrestler and he actually wore it, I’d be like, ‘He’s my favorite wrestler forever.’ I try to think of when I was a kid and not in the business, how would I feel if he did that?”
On his relationship with Brodie Lee Jr.: “He’s the best. It’s funny because a lot of people assume I’ve known that family forever, and I did not know them until literally a week before Brodie passed away. I remember meeting [-1] and Amanda [Huber] backstage, and I knew who they were but I wasn’t in gimmick at all. I think Amanda knew who I was but little Brodie definitely had no idea who I was. So, I said hello and went along with my business. When I got into full gimmick, I was like behind them and little Brodie was like, ‘Mom, that’s 10!’ And then he just gravitated towards me. I’m never super serious and always try to be lighthearted, so I think in a time that was hard for everybody, especially him, it kind of let him just be a kid again and take his mind off of it. We’ll do these charity events and Thunder Rosa will just be like, ‘You have the gift. No matter where we go, kids just gravitate towards you.’ I think it’s because I naturally give off a big brother [vibe].”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
