Keith Lee Shares All The Inspirations For His New Look, Why He Made The Change

When Keith Lee returned from his storyline injury on the February 17 episode of "AEW Rampage," he surprised fans with a new look: clean-shaven with his prematurely gray hair replacing his traditional black dye job, soon to be accompanied by a cape that he now wears during his ring entrance. Though he had occasionally let some gray sneak in before, particularly in his facial hair, this was a stark change from his trademark look. 

In a new interview with Fightful's "Grapsody" podcast, the "Limitless" one went into detail about the change.

"This is definitely the same Keith Lee that left," he explained. "The Keith Lee that left was not the entirety of what Keith Lee is. I think that what inspired that look or return and all of that. I think in my previous interview, the exact terminology I used was a giant middle finger to society and a lot of companies that tell you what you need to look like." 

So he decided to pull from reality and change his look to make a point.

"I saw my first gray hair at 16, which means they were coming in long before that," Lee added. "I want people to be comfortable with who they are. Now, don't get me wrong, I want people to be the best versions of themselves, but not at the expense of their natural looks." He wants to be a trendsetter and show that you can be successful in their 30s with gray or white hair.

Keith Lee added that his new look was inspired by "Tekken" character Leroy Smith, who has white hair and wears a long coat. 

"He is actually the No. 1 inspiration behind that top. And that will actually be a style that I use going forward because it's very fitting of who I am as a human being in terms of being not average when it comes to the brain and intellect and even having a spiritual approach to things. Not necessarily a religion, but when I say 'spiritual,' I mean consciousness and things of that sort." 

Lee also expressed that he was glad that someone noticed the "Tekken" reference. Asked about the "uproar" over his new look, Lee explained that he saw it as a matter of closed-mindedness vs. open-mindedness. 

"Close-minded only ever see religion in that book," he said. "Open-minded people are curious. The people that dabble in the things I dabble in are like your friend [who spotted the Leroy inspiration]. And yeah, I have a picture in my phone, I literally sent the photo to my gear maker and was like, 'Can I do something similar to this? Take out the dragon, because we already have a Bryan Danielson.' This look, this visual appearance, is something I want to have when I'm doing promos, when I'm backstage, whatever it may be, that's how I'm going to stand out because no one else does it. And I'm different. And I like being different. If that creates an uproar in the people and all that? Then so be it."

Lee got his first measure of revenge against Swerve Strickland and Mogul Associates on last week's "AEW Rampage." There, he and Dustin Rhodes, as Naturally Limitless, defeated Strickland and Parker Boudreaux in the episode's show-closing match.