Redbeard chats the late Jon Huber and Windham Rotunda.
Joining Chris Van Vliet for the newest edition of his podcast was Erick Redbeard. The idea of Redbeard being a part of AEW’s Dark Order faction was brought up and he reiterated that there was never any conversations between himself and the late Jon Huber a.k.a Brodie Lee/Luke Harper about that happening.
He said they fought hard to get out of each other’s shadows in the wrestling space and always wanted something to have for themselves. As far as present day, he stated once again that he would not want to join the group because that’s Jon’s legacy and no one should try to replace that. He feels the group does a good job honoring him, but doesn’t see Dark Order ever being as big as they were when Jon was in the group.
Redbeard did recall him and Huber talking about the idea of maybe doing shows together in Japan.
So we (Redbeard & Jon Huber) talked a lot when he was doing it (Dark Order) because I was always like, ‘I’m so happy for you. You look you’re having a blast.’ He’s like, he never was given much promo time in WWE. So watching them do even the B.T.E. episodes, I would watch that just to watch his segments because he’s having fun. He’s speaking, he is being this character he wanted to be. And he was a fan of mobster movies and stuff like that. So here I’m watching this giant man doing a Joe Pesci, like, it’s crazy, like just is drawing papers (at) people and you can tell, he’s just having a blast. And I was on the phone with (him) talking about how happy I was for him. And he had this spark under him about how much fun he was having. And at the same time, I think I had started doing some films, and he was throwing back the same things to me and how excited he was for me, and what was gonna happen for me in the future. So it was that kind of mutual thing. And then there was never any talk of it (joining Dark Order). I mean, we talked about maybe doing some signings together, or maybe doing a couple, you know, like, shows, maybe in Japan or something, but, we had never talked about doing anything there because he was building something for him. And we had fought so hard to get out of each other’s shadows for so long, because we were always connected. And we wanted something for ourselves. And to see him start to get something for himself and for me to be able to branch off and do stuff for myself, those were great conversations to have, you know, and as far as after he passes, I wouldn’t want anything to do with Dark Order, ever. And it’s not because I don’t think those guys are cool. It’s because that was his legacy. He created that in such a short amount of time, he made them something very special. And nobody should try to replace that. And those guys do good by honoring him, but I don’t see them ever being as big as they were with him.
When it comes to the late Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Bray Wyatt, Redbeard said Rotunda spoke to him about wanting to involve him in what he had going on in the pro wrestling space.
Windham (Rotunda) talked to me about wanting to involve me. But you know, it’s all about timing and places and story and what works best for the company, you know? And it’s not all an individual’s decision. So, yeah, we’ve had conversations about things we’d like to do and stuff in the future, but like, you know, life happens and things happen, and unfortunate things happen that are way more important than anything to do with this fictional wrestling that we do.
After Rotunda’s passing, Redbeard was present at the Friday Night SmackDown tribute show to honor the legacies of Rotunda and Terry Funk. He was featured on-screen alongside Braun Strowman.
