Keith Lee looks back on being meme’d and his days as Bearcat.
Keith Lee recently spoke with “Doc” Chris Mueller for Bleacher Report about his All Elite Wrestling tenure as well as his run in WWE. During his NXT run, Lee was subject to being immortalized in GIFs and memes, one of which featured him pouncing Adam Cole over the barricade in NXT. Lee said he’s not much of a social media guy, but he’s glad the fans are enjoying themselves and creating some fun content. In regards to the interaction with Cole, Lee said that it’s still a popular one that is shared today.
“I’ve heard how Cole got flooded [with the GIF] when I first announced that I got signed. And it’s just people shooting him messages like, ‘This is your future.’ I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, man.’ [laughs] I am never aware that this stuff is going on, but when someone a friend or whoever will shoot me a thread, it puts a smile on my face that so many people are enjoying it.”
Lee has also been featured in memes with Finn Balor in NXT, and more recently his biel throw of Isiah Kassidy during his AEW debut also made waves. Lee spoke about the latter being inserted into a hilarious clip from Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers and said that it provided a good laugh.
“That one I saw,” Lee said. “I think yesterday or maybe the day before, that one got me because I’m a big Lord of the Rings guy. And it made me think of Dakota Kai because she loves Lord of the Rings. I’m like, ‘I hope that she loves this as much as I do.’ Yeah, some of these people should be getting paid to be honest, because they’re absolutely hilarious.”
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Towards the end of his WWE run, Lee was given the “Bearcat” nickname, which was met with a mixed reaction. Lee recalled hearing about the name change and says he didn’t think much about it considering he was recovering from the effects of COVID-19 at the time. Now, he says he was doing what his employer asked of him, but might take a different stance if put in a similar situation.
“I don’t really think I had [a reaction],” Lee said. “At the end of the day, it was something that was brought up while I was out doing the dance with lady death situation. And I didn’t think much of it, obviously. And then when I came back, it was something that [WWE management] really wanted, and they pulled me into an office and asked me to do it. And that was my job. So I said ‘OK,’ and that was kind of it. Was I fond of it? No. But you got to do what you’re asked to do at the end of the day.
“But I think that in my time there, what I learned is sometimes loyalty just doesn’t really do that much for you [laughs]. So while I was OK then, I think that if I was asked to do something that I didn’t agree with, from here on, it would not just be an ‘OK,’ but more of a ‘hell-to-the-no.'”
