Ring of Honor / EVOLVE star Keith Lee recently spoke with ESPN.com‘s Tim Fiorvanti; you can read a few highlights below:
Keith Lee reveals how his grandmother inspired his interest in professional wrestling:
“For me, this story is not an average story, like ‘I saw a particular wrestler that inspired me,’ or anything of that sort. As a young kid in my family, my grandmother was kind of the catalyst for my interest in wrestling, because she loved it so much. A lot of my cousins and stuff, we would wrestle when we were young.”
“I guess her love kind of buried itself within me, because sometime in college while I was playing football, I just kind of had a moment where it became, ‘I want to wrestle.’ Her love became my interest.”
Lee talks about learning from his experience with Ring of Honor:
“I learned a ton about tag team wresting, because I was never a tag team guy. Really, I was learning on the job. I’ll take the time to thank Christopher Daniels, because he did a lot to teach and guide me and kind of mentor me on that. Obviously, Shane [Taylor]’s an equal partner, and I didn’t have to get hit by him, so that was always great.
I think in the end, I learned a ton, and we had some great fun. We even got a dream match, the two of us versus the Briscoes, in my final night there. That was a joy as well.”
Lee talks about the decision to sign with EVOLVE:
“In the span of a few days, I spoke with EVOLVE probably more than I spoke with Ring of Honor in 18 months. They really showed an interest in me, and my ability, and you know, giving me a chance to exude who Keith Lee is, and introduce myself to crowds in a way that I see fit.
It’s just a lot of opportunity to showcase myself. It’s also a chance to try and be the guy who raises the bar for EVOLVE, you know? It’s not a selfish thing, for me. I’ve always been one that wants to be a key [player] that raises the prestige for whoever I work for.”
Lee says he doesn’t put a limit on what he can do in the ring:
“I definitely believe that I’m an athlete, and I don’t ever put the words “for my size” around that, because I feel like there’s a lot of things I do that smaller guys can’t do. On the same token, I also realize that because of my size, it makes it that much more of a wow factor; when you add another big guy to the mix that also produces the same wow factor, of course it’s going to be a spectacle for the crowd.
“To me, those are special moments, because those are things that the fans love. That back and forth transfer of energy between the people in the ring and the crowd, it just creates this atmosphere that’s absolutely tremendous. It’s amazing, to be honest.”
