Keith Lee is fine with the discourse surrounding his new look on AEW television.
The Grapsody podcast recently welcomed Keith Lee to the show, and the group discussed Lee’s new look after returning from his hiatus. Lee was spotted during a backstage promo on Dynamite wearing a long white coat with gold trim. Some fans joked about Lee looking like a church pastor, but co-host Phil Lindsey noted that someone correctly pointed out Lee looked like Leroy Smith from Tekken.
Keith Lee said Leroy was the inspiration for the look and explained the reasoning behind it.
“Umm… you know what? He is actually the number one inspiration behind that top. And that will actually be a style I’ll be using going forward because it’s very fitting of who I am as a human being in terms of being not average when it comes to the brain, intellect. Even having a spiritual approach to things, not necessarily religion, but when I say spiritual I mean consciousness and things of that sort,” Lee explained.
“So it’s a mixture between Mr. Leroy — I’m glad that person actually caught it. Most people were like, [does a Southern accent] [calling me] Pastor Keith and all that stuff. Not a church guy, but…”
Lindsey also noted how a previous quote shared by Lee was greatly taken out of context, and Lee said that’s why he enjoys the discourse over his new look.
“And that’s why I take such joy in this because that top has caused such an uproar, so to speak. The views are so vast, but you can tell who’s narrow-minded and you can tell who has some interests that I have, or are open-minded,” Lee said. “Close-minded only ever see religion in that look. Open-minded people are curious. The people that dabble in the things I dabble in are like, ‘Leroy!’
“I have a photo and I sent the photo to my gear maker and said, ‘Can I do something similar to this?’ Take out the dragon, because he keeps the dragon design on his,” Lee explained. “Take out the dragon because we already have a Bryan Danielson, and this look, this visual appearance is something that I want to have when I’m doing promos, backstage, whatever it may be. That’s how I’m going to stand out because no one else does it. I’m different, and I like being different. If that creates an uproar with the people, then so be it. I’m fine with it.”
If you use this transcript, credit Grapsody, h/t WrestleZone and link back to this post.
