Keith Lee’s journey to AEW was preceded by his time in WWE, where he was given the nickname “Bearcat,” which was met with ridicule and memes. Lee openly speaks about his rejection of the gimmick and eventually accepts it during an interview with Fightful’s Sean Sapp. However, because of their majestic nature, he also expressed his desire to pitch his gimmick, such as a dragon. Despite initially rejecting the Bearcat moniker, Lee wonders if it negatively affected his career. He praised his creative freedom in NXT and questioned why Vince McMahon was so insistent on the nickname. Though Keith Lee did his best with the situation, things did not work out, and he is now enjoying his time in AEW. While he is not currently booked for AEW Revolution, there is always a chance he could be added to the card. He will unlikely find himself in another creative nightmare like the Bearcat gimmick again.

He said that he wasn’t in favor of the Bearcat Lee name, and actually rejected it at first, and they seemed cool with it. Within a couple of weeks, Lee was brought into a meeting with Vince McMahon who said “I need you,” and someone in that position saying that helped convince him to do it. It happened in the middle of Raw during a main event and made Lee feel like it was a big deal. Vince McMahon was off the headset for the meeting, which was very rare at the time.