Amanda Huber, the widow of late AEW wrestler Brodie Lee , took to social media on Tuesday to contest the recent allegations made by a wrestling columnist who claimed that her husband actually died from COVID-19 and that she and the promotion covered up his supposed cause of death.
On Wednesday morning, Ringside News published a screenshot from Huber’s Instagram stories, where she released a statement disputing the aforementioned claims from now-former PWTorch columnist Bruce Mitchell. She first looked back on her long relationship with Lee — aka Jonathan Huber in real life and formerly Luke Harper in WWE — and how the couple requested that “out of respect” for his privacy, his lung illness be kept a secret. She stressed that her husband tested negative for COVID-19 multiple times, adding that she “almost [prayed]” for a positive result so that she could get some definitive answers regarding the nature of his illness.
In the second half of her statement, Huber referenced Mitchell’s article, which insinuated that there was “some type of cover-up” and that she was not completely transparent about Lee’s actual cause of death. She emphasized that there was no truth to the story, as her husband’s untimely passing was simply a “tragedy” and not a “public health hazard.”
“There’s no cover up. There’s no conspiracy. There was just a series of unfortunate events that ended in your world being crushed.”
Huber concluded her post by stressing once again that while there is “no shame” in dying from COVID-19, Lee died of an illness that had nothing to do with the novel coronavirus.
Although PWTorch took down Mitchell’s column about Lee amid outrage over his allegations, Greensboro Sports reposted a copy of the article, which started by eulogizing the wrestler and noting that his “gamble” to leave WWE had paid off after he was introduced as the leader of The Dark Order in AEW. Mitchell went on to wonder why Lee’s family — as well as the company he last worked for — “[stayed] so quiet” in the weeks between the grappler’s last televised appearance in October and his death on December 26 if his passing was not at all related to the coronavirus.
“I’m not a doctor, but I’ve never heard of an athlete the size and in the shape Brodie Lee was in to be able to excel in his last two matches suddenly developing a lung condition that serious that quickly,” he added.
Around the same time that Huber issued her statement on the matter, PWTorch editor Wade Keller confirmed on Tuesday that he decided to let Mitchell go after more than three decades with the publication. The veteran pro-wrestling journalist also expressed his apologies to Lee’s family for “any pain” that Mitchell’s story might have caused.