Good news to those who enjoy glory, and basking in it: Keith Lee may be headed to WWE before the year is out.
Nothing is official at this time, but there have been rumors for a while that have attached Lee — currently one of the biggest stars on the indie wrestling scene, both in terms of popularity and stature — to WWE, but now there seems to be a bit more substantial smoke, and as a result, maybe fire?
Let me back up a bit, but before I do that, allow yourself a moment to get acquainted with Lee, who is not only a fantastic pro wrestling, but a wonderful human being, to boot.
Lee has been under semi-exclusive contract to EVOLVE and WWN since 2017, but given the very close working relationship with WWE and WWN — and the fact that EVOLVE owner Gabe Sapolsky is now employed full-time by WWE — that wouldn’t seem to be much of an obstacle to him potentially getting signed.
Lee was one of the independent talents who worked AXXESS over WrestleMania weekend and was featured heavily at the fan event. He successfully defended the WWN Championship against Kassius Ohno at AXXESS, although he lost that title to Austin Theory, and later in the weekend decisively lost another AXXESS match to NXT Superstar Lars Sullivan. Prior to WrestleMania weekend, the Wrestling Observer claimed that Lee and international wrestler WALTER were close to signing with WWE, although both men denied that. Shortly after WrestleMania weekend, Lee replied to a fan with a tweet saying “never say never” to a potential WWE career for himself.
But most telling, during an AAW show in Chicago last Friday, Lee reportedly gave an emotional farewell speech, and also thanked the promotion on Twitter on Monday.
Wanted to start this morning off with a random picture…
An enormous thank you to @AAWPro and its fans. You guys were way too fun Friday night.
And a thank you to @MaverickPro1 for having me in to have some fun. pic.twitter.com/D7DK5AlX4o
— Excellent Lee (@RealKeithLee) April 16, 2018
According to ProWrestling.com, Lee’s speech to the AAW crowd praised his tag team partners, and he thanked the crowd for their support and said he doesn’t know what the future holds. Lee is also currently the PWG world champ, but he may very well be in the process of finishing up his existing independent commitments in the coming months. We’ll keep you posted if any concrete news emerges.
