Spirit Bombed: The Rise Of Keith Lee
When fans think of pro wrestling in 2020, one of the first names that comes to mind is Keith Lee of NXT. The North American Champion since the beginning of the year, and now the NXT Champion, Lee has been one of the brightest stars in wrestling for the past few years. Before signing with WWE in 2018, Lee was an indie darling, but we often talk about the run that Lee has been on for the past six years or so. Lee hasn’t been a wrestler for just the past six years, rather the past 15. Now on the top of the NXT mountain, let’s bask in the glory of the past decade and a half of Keith Lee.
The story of Keith Lee doesn’t start in the wrestling ring, rather on the football field. Lee was a successful enough defensive lineman in high school to be on the Texas A&M University in the early 2000’s. But during his time in College Station, Texas, Lee’s love for pro wrestling overtook his love for football, so Lee left the gridiron for the squared circle. Keith Lee made his in ring debut on May 28, 2005 for a promotion called Professional Championship Wrestling (PCW) under the name Keith Paine. Lee would lose to a wrestler named Shadow at an event called Full Throttle: Fight Win Survive Week 1. People might know the wrestler Shadow better by the name he uses today, Lance Archer. Lee would get his first ever win on October 15, 2005 when he defeated Brandon Collins at PCW Full Throttle.
Lee would start to pick up more wins in 2006 picking up wins against Robert Evans (a writer for Impact Wrestling), Vordell Walker, Brandon Collins, Nobe Bryant (yes that is his real wrestling name), Eddie Atlas and Apocalypse. Lee also started making appearances for Xtreme Wrestling Championships. Lee would get his first win for the promotion against Sidd Murder. Lee would also pick up wins against Al Jackson, Don Juan, Justin 2 Fine, Drunk Adam and Ricky Jackson. Lee would also pick up the XWC TNT Championship on November 3, 2006 when he defeated Jackson at XWC Apocalypse. Lee would eventually drop the TNT Championship and only compete twice in 2007. 2008 would see Lee compete six times for the North American Wrestling Allegiance, where he would win every match except for a tag team match where he and Ice-X were defeated by Bullman Downs and Doberman. Lee would also have his first ever WWE tryout in 2008, after doing some extra work for a segment on Monday Night Raw and a good word put in by Lance Archer. Lee would return to XWC in 2008 and win the XWC Heavyweight Championship, but there is no record of Lee winning that championship on Cagematch. Despite winning the XWC Heavyweight Championship, Lee wouldn’t have a good 2009 as he only picked up wins against Scott McKenzie at XCW At Pilot Point and Gregory Symonds XCW Unsanctioned out of his seven matches.
Lee would start to pick up more wins in 2006 picking up wins against Robert Evans (a writer for Impact Wrestling), Vordell Walker, Brandon Collins, Nobe Bryant (yes that is his real wrestling name), Eddie Atlas and Apocalypse. Lee also started making appearances for Xtreme Wrestling Championships. Lee would get his first win for the promotion against Sidd Murder. Lee would also pick up wins against Al Jackson, Don Juan, Justin 2 Fine, Drunk Adam and Ricky Jackson. Lee would also pick up the XWC TNT Championship on November 3, 2006 when he defeated Jackson at XWC Apocalypse. Lee would eventually drop the TNT Championship and only compete twice in 2007. 2008 would see Lee compete six times for the North American Wrestling Allegiance, where he would win every match except for a tag team match where he and Ice-X were defeated by Bullman Downs and Doberman. Lee would also have his first ever WWE tryout in 2008, after doing some extra work for a segment on Monday Night Raw and a good word put in by Lance Archer. Lee would return to XWC in 2008 and win the XWC Heavyweight Championship, but there is no record of Lee winning that championship on Cagematch. Despite winning the XWC Heavyweight Championship, Lee wouldn’t have a good 2009 as he only picked up wins against Scott McKenzie at XCW At Pilot Point and Gregory Symonds XCW Unsanctioned out of his seven matches.
There is only one recorded match for Keith Lee in 2010 for River City Wrestling, but he would bounce back in 2011, when he and a wrestler named Li Fang would win the NAWA Tag Team Championships from Cowboy Adam and Tim Storm. Lee would also make his debut in Metroplex Wrestling on September 9, 2011 and would pick up two wins against Matt Palmer and Andy Dalton. Lee would also have his second WWE tryout in 2011, but was again told no. Lee has gone on record saying that the second no made him question if he had made the right decision when he left football. Lee only would have one match in 2012 and three in 2013. Lee had yet another WWE tryout in 2013, but was told no for the third time and he went on record saying that he was all but ready to leave the business.
When he was doubting if he belonged in the world of pro wrestling, Lee would get his first real big break when the National Wrestling Association made a loop to Texas and booked Lee in a tag team match with Tim Storm where they defeated Jax Dane and Scot Summers. Lee would be booked on two more NWA shows in 2014, one of which was a win against Brent McKenzie at July Jamboree 2. In 2015, Lee would wrestle in his most matches since 2006 and would win the Inspire Pure Pro Wrestling Championship for Inspire Pro Wrestling when he beat Thomas Shire at Inspire Pro Phenomenon. Lee would also challenge for the NWA Texoma Heavyweight Championship at NWA Texoma Anniversary on April 17th but was unable to win the championship from Jerome Daniels. Lee would have his first match against a high profile wrestler when he took on a former multitime WWE Tag Team Champion Charlie Hass at MPX Bitter Friends in a losing effort. The big brakes wouldn’t stop there for Lee, as he would make his in ring debut for Ring of Honor at first night of the Best in the World where he would team up with Shane Taylor to defeat Andy Dalton and Ken Phoenix. This was one of four appearances that Lee would have for ROH in 2015, all of which Lee was victorious in. This would be one of the many matches that Lee would have with well known names of independent wrestling. By the end of the year, Lee would tangle with the likes of Hernandez, Raymond Rowe, The Young Bucks, ACH and Orange Cassidy.
When he was doubting if he belonged in the world of pro wrestling, Lee would get his first real big break when the National Wrestling Association made a loop to Texas and booked Lee in a tag team match with Tim Storm where they defeated Jax Dane and Scot Summers. Lee would be booked on two more NWA shows in 2014, one of which was a win against Brent McKenzie at July Jamboree 2. In 2015, Lee would wrestle in his most matches since 2006 and would win the Inspire Pure Pro Wrestling Championship for Inspire Pro Wrestling when he beat Thomas Shire at Inspire Pro Phenomenon. Lee would also challenge for the NWA Texoma Heavyweight Championship at NWA Texoma Anniversary on April 17th but was unable to win the championship from Jerome Daniels. Lee would have his first match against a high profile wrestler when he took on a former multitime WWE Tag Team Champion Charlie Hass at MPX Bitter Friends in a losing effort. The big brakes wouldn’t stop there for Lee, as he would make his in ring debut for Ring of Honor at first night of the Best in the World where he would team up with Shane Taylor to defeat Andy Dalton and Ken Phoenix. This was one of four appearances that Lee would have for ROH in 2015, all of which Lee was victorious in. This would be one of the many matches that Lee would have with well known names of independent wrestling. By the end of the year, Lee would tangle with the likes of Hernandez, Raymond Rowe, The Young Bucks, ACH and Orange Cassidy.
In 2016, Lee would double his number of matches from 2015, and earned the biggest opportunities of his career at the time. At the VIP Wrestling show titled VIP Texasmania on April 3, 2016, Lee and Taylor, now using the name Pretty Boy Killers, would challenge for the GHC Tag Team Championships. Their opponents? Two members of Suzuki-Gun, the Killer Elite Squad of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer. At this time, the Pretty Boy Killers were undefeated at the time, but would suffer their first loss as a team. Lee was starting to get his name out there, but in 2016, there were two matches that would get Lee’s name out there to wrestling fans. The first was on May 28, 2016 at Limitless Wrestlings event, Limitless No Dropkicks in the Living Room, where he took on fellow big man Jeff Cobb in a really entertaining match. But the match that got the wrestling world talking about Keith Lee took place the very next day at Beyond Wrestling’s Beyond GIGANTIC event where he took on Donovan Dijak, who fans of NXT might know better as Dominik Dijakovic. The two big men’s history is a long one and helped both wrestlers rise up the ranks in popularity of the indy wrestling fans. The Pretty Boy Killers would also earn a lot of Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser, as well as War Machine. They also were part of a ROH Tag Team Championship gauntlet match that was eventually won by Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. The team would also win the number one contendership for the VIP Tag Team Championships, which they would win in 2017. The day after winning the number one contendership for the tag team championships, Lee would defeat Raymond Rowe to win the VIP Heavyweight Championship at VIP Setting the Bar 3. Lee would also take on the likes of Brian Cage, AR Fox, Ricky Starks, Brian Milonas, The Briscoes, Zack Sabre Jr., Kimber Lee, Dave Mastiff, Iestyn Rees, Joey Janella, Michael Elgin, and Chris Hero. The name Keith Lee was starting to spread around the world of pro wrestling.
Donovan Dijak & Keith Lee put on one of the best matches of 2017.
Lee’s 2017 would see him have three big matches in the span of a week. Lee would challenge David Starr for the wXw Shotgun Championship on January 20 at the XWA Xtreme Rumble, but came up short. Lee would then defeat Dijak a day later at Northeast Wrestling Over the Top event, and was one of Chris Hero’s last indy event at Evolve 76, where he lost to Hero. As mentioned earlier, Lee and Taylor would win the VIP Tag Team Championships from War Machine at Love STEEL Hurts on February 10. Lee would pick up wins against the likes of Bob Holly, Sabre Jr. and Tracey Williams to get his year off to a very hot start. He held three championships, was facing some of the top independent wrestlers in the world, so as one of the biggest names on the independent scene, the only independent promotion left for him to dominate was Pro Wrestling Guerilla. Lee would make his debut in PWG at Nice Boys (Don’t Play Rock N’ Roll) where he took part in a triple threat match that included Brian Cage and Sami Callihan that was won by Cage. Lee would have matches with the likes of Lio Rush, Ricochet, Austin Theory, Billy Gunn, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish, Moose, Matt Sydal, John Morrison before he would lose the Inspire Pure Pro Wrestling Championship to Sammy Guevara and the VIP Heavyweight Championship to ACH, and would vacate the VIP Tag Team Championships in early 2018. But Lee would turn his eyes to some other prizes. Those prizes were the World Wrestling Network Championship, more on that in a bit, several other championships that Lee would fail to win like the Progress Championship held by Travis Banks and the Evolve Championship held by Zack Sabre Jr.
Another prize that Lee had his eyes on was the Battle of Los Angeles Tournament. Lee’s route to winning the tournament wasn’t an easy one, as he had to go through WALTER, Rey Fenix and Dijak to get to the finals, but Lee was able to do just that. But just like in his championship hunt, Lee came up short in his quest to win the tournament as Ricochet would win the triple threat final that included Jeff Cobb. While Lee was unable to win several championships or the Battle of Los Angeles, he was able to win one championship, the WWN Championship. Lee first challenged Matt Riddle for the WWN Championship on June 25, 2017 at Evolve 87, but wasn’t able to finish the job. Lee was then in a four way championship match that involved Riddle, Tracy Williams and WALTER at Evolve 91 on August 12 that Riddle won. Lee would get one more shot at Riddle and the WWN Championship at Evolve 94. Lee would win the last man standing match and finally take the title from Riddle. Lee would finish the year with championship defenses against the likes of Dave Mastiff and WALTER to walk into 2018 as WWN Champion.
Lee would retain his WWN Championship in matches against Chris Dickinson and AR Fox at Evolve 99 and 100 and after matches with Mike Bailey, Thatcher and Riddle, Lee looked to win the 16 Carat Gold tournament held by Westside Xtreme Wrestling. He would beat fellow big man Avalanche and the Calamari Catch King Chris Brookes before falling in the semifinals to David Starr. This tournament shortcoming wouldn’t deter Lee, as he would win the PWG World Championship at Time is a Flat Circle from Trevor Lee. Lee would then go on to make an appearance at Wrestlemania Axxess and defend the WWN Championship against Kassius Ohno. Lee would then drop the WWN Championship to Austin Theory at Evolve 103 in a champion vs champion match where Theory’s Full Impact Pro World Heavyweight Championship was also on the line. Lee would also drop the PWG World Championship at All Star Weekend 14 to WALTER in a triple threat that also included Jonah Rock (Bronson Reed in NXT). Lee would enter Progress Wrestlings Super Strong Style 16 where he scored wins over Flash Morgan Webster and Angelico to reach the semifinals, but fell to an old rival in Sabre Jr. After a pair of dream matches against then Rev Pro British Heavyweight Championship Tomohiro Ishii and a match at Over The Top’s ScrapperMania IV with Minoru Suzuki, it was announced that Lee was a member of the July 2018 class. Lee was a part of a very stacked class that included current NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai, Mae Young Classic quarter finalists Deonna Purazzo and Lacey Lane (Kayden Carter in NXT), undefeated boxer Taishan Dong, Monique Jenkins and NCAA Wrestling All-American Denzel Dejournette. Lee would make his NXT TV debut on July 18, where he defeated Marcel Barthel. Lee would then be on the house show loop that saw him beat the likes of Dominik Dijakovic, Humberto Carrillo, Fabian Aichner, Tony Nese, and Punishment Martinez. There were also a trio of other squash matches on NXT television, but there was one televised loss to Lars Sullivan.
Keith Lee was the sole survivor for Team NXT during Survivor Series 2019.
As 2019 started to roll on, we saw Keith Lee rise up the ranks in NXT. What started as squash matches, we saw them develop into longer matches with the likes of Dijakovic and Damien Priest. Lee was also challenging Adam Cole for the NXT Championship on the house show loop, showing the faith that NXT had in him. Lee would turn his attention to the NXT North American Championship held by Roderick Strong. After a number one contenders match between Lee and Dijakovic ended in a No Contest, both of them challenged Strong for the title, but Strong would retain. Both Lee and Dijakovic issues with the Undisputed Era, just like Tomasso Ciampa and Matt Riddle. This set up perfectly for the upcoming Takeover War Games show, but then Johnny Gargano suffered a neck injury, meaning that Finn Balor needed a new opponent for Takeover. Riddle got the call and that meant a surprise entrant for Team Ciampa. What followed was a fantastic match. There was the return of the Psycho Killer Tomasso Ciampa, amazing spots from all involved, Lee coming in and cleaning up all members of Undisputed Era that were in the ring, Kevin Owens surprising return as the fourth member of Team Ciampa, Lee flying onto all of the competitors, eight different wrestlers that had called ROH home at one point, and Lee was a part of the victorious Team Ciampa. But Lee’s weekend wouldn’t end there, as he would represent NXT in the 5 on 5 on 5 Survivor Series match. Lee joined Ciampa, Priest, WALTER and Riddle. As the match progressed, everyone thought that it was going to come down to the three captains of Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Ciampa. But after Rollins eliminated Ciampa, it was down to Rollins, Reigns and Lee. Then the unthinkable happened, Lee eliminated the former Universal Champion Rollins, leaving just Lee and Reigns. Reigns would eventually walk away victorious, but the entire wrestling world walked away from the event talking about the Limitless One, Keith Lee.
Lee would continue his partnership with Dijakovic as they challenged for the NXT Tag Team Championships on NXT TV but were unable to take the titles from Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish. As 2020 rolled around, the Lee and Dijakovic partnership was put on the backburner as both were in a fatal four way for the number one contendership for the North American Championship that also included Damien Priest and Cameron Grimes that Lee won. Lee would challenge Roderick Strong for the title on January 22, and would end the Undisputed Era’s golden prophecy as Lee pinned Strong to win the championship. Four days later, Keith Lee made his first appearance in the Royal Rumble. When Lee’s music hit, the stadium erupted and Lesnar’s face said it all.
Keith Lee didn’t just stand across the ring from Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman, he held his own against them. While he was eliminated by Lesnar while he was facing off against Strowman, Lee left an impression on the fans. Lee would have a fantastic championship defense against Dijakovic at Takeover: Portland, and in matches against Damien Priest and Cameron Grimes. And then we got a little taste of a Keith Lee and Johnny Gargano feud. Lee would retain the North American Championship in a match between the two at Takeover: In Your House in one of the best matches of the night. It was then that things got interesting in NXT as Gargano, Finn Balor and Lee all wanted a piece of the NXT Champion, Adam Cole. This led the General Manager of NXT, William Regal, to make a proposal. Lee would defend the NXT North American Championship against Gargano and Balor, and whoever won would face Cole the next week in a winners take all match. In what might have been one of the best main events of NXT TV, Lee walked away victorious. All that stood in his way was the most dominant NXT Champion in history, a man who had reigned over NXT for over 400 days, Adam Cole. Could Keith Lee overcome this massive challenge? Well if this article has taught you anything, it is to never doubt Keith Lee.
Lee would bring an end to Cole’s reign of dominance on July 8, and won the NXT Championship to go along with his North American Championship. Keith Lee has gone from someone wrestling a few matches a year and being told ‘no’ at every single turn, to making it so companies couldn’t tell him no anymore. Now he is on the top of the NXT mountain. Lee is someone that, even when things weren’t falling his way, he never gave up. 15 years later, we are all basking in his glory and wondering what he will do next.
