Amanda Huber Reveals Brodie Lee 'Started To Believe' He'd Be In The WWE Title Match At WrestleMania 33

Amanda Huber, the widow of Brodie Lee, has revealed her husband believed he would be added to the WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 33 with Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt.

One of WWE's most in-depth and interesting stories in late 2016 and early 2017 saw Orton deceive Wyatt and turn The Wyatt Family in on itself, with Lee - then known as Luke Harper - seeing Orton's plan for what it was.

The match was set for Orton and Wyatt to compete for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 33 but many fans wanted Harper to be in the match too, having taken his side in the build.

Harper would eventually lose out and was relegated to the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, but Huber recalls that her husband was desperate to be included in the WWE Title match.

Writing in an emotive piece for the Players' Tribune, Huber said: "I think Jon accepted his “spot” for what it was, for the most part. I mean…. he got to wrestle for a living. Our family had more financial security than either of us could’ve hoped for. He’d made lifelong friends. Jon was never ungrateful for the opportunities that WWE had given him — and he usually had a pretty healthy perspective on what mattered.

"But everyone still has dreams, you know?? And I think deep down, under Jon’s pessimism, there was still that kid who dreamed of “winning the big one.” And though he’d been wrong about what he could achieve in WWE all those times before….. unfortunately, it seemed like Jon was going to be right about the world title. He’d won the IC belt in the fall of 2014 — but then a couple of years passed, and that was still the furthest he’d managed to move up the card. He’d hit his “WWE ceiling,” in other words. And I think it stung him, in his own way, having to come to terms with that.

"But then something strange happened. I guess it started in October 2016, when Jon came back from his injury. Jon had torn a ligament in his knee that March, then missed the next six months rehabbing. For his return, they teamed him up with Bray again, in an updated version of the Wyatts — this time with Randy Orton, of all people, as part of the group. And from there, this really great story developed between Bray, Randy and Jon.

"I won’t try to summarize it, but it was basically a cool twist on the usual Wyatt stuff: Where, instead of Bray seducing Randy into joining the Family, Randy seduced Bray into thinking he was seducing Randy into joining the Family. When, in truth, Randy was planning to infiltrate the group….. then turn on them. And Jon was the only person who saw the scheme for what it was. Ultimately, this was all ramping up to a huge match at WrestleMania…. Bray against Randy, for Bray’s WWE title.

"Like I said, though — something strange happened: Instead of getting behind Bray or Randy, the crowd started to get behind Jon. It was one of the most layered stories that he ever got to tell in WWE, and he just crushed it. He played his part to perfection, as the classic guy who’s paranoid but no one will listen….. and then it turns out that he was actually right to be paranoid, all along. I think the fans really related to him, and were excited to see these new shades of Luke Harper. And as Jon’s momentum kept building, through late 2016 and into early 2017 (aka “WrestleMania season”), the crowds started to get behind him as more than just a supporting character.

"Now a lot of fans were voicing their opinion that the match should be a three-way….. with Jon added in. It was this amazing, organic thing. And it breaks my heart a little to think about, but Jon really did want it….. and he kind of almost started to believe that it might happen. We’d be talking, and he’d just tell me, like: “Even if the bell rings, and I get hit with an RKO, and I’m laying there for the rest of the match until it’s over — I’d take it. I’d still take that. It would still mean I was in a world title match at WrestleMania."