WWE's Keith Lee Describes His Love for Dragon Ball Z, Picks Which Character He'd Play in a Live-Action Adaptation

The worlds of professional wrestling and Dragon Ball Z fandom have continued to grow in recent years. Whether it's by creating new gear channeling their favorite characters, naming their signature moves based on techniques from the show or sharing fan art, active pro wrestlers have continued to find new ways to honor the franchise. WWE Superstar Keith Lee was the latest to do so, arriving at the Payback pay-per-view earlier this year in new gear inspired by Broly's design from the 2018 Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie.

In a new interview with ComicBook, Lee explained why the series connects so much with him, and why so many active wrestlers fall in love with the anime.

"A lot of it has to do with my whole kind of lifestyle belief of limitless, and taking things and overcoming them, and coming back better, and things of that sort," Lee said. "Tasting failure, overcoming that, whatever it may be. And that's kind of the premise of it. Now, it's about fighting some guys that want to be strong, but they want to be strong just for -- another thing that I love — competition in general. They want to be the best. And I think that a lot of people relate to that in different ways. For me, it's kind of a storyline view of who I am, I think, in a lot of different ways. I think some guys just kind of don't even like anime, but they love Dragon Ball Z just for that premise alone."

#RIPMichaelFaith

I shall try to raise my power level at #SurvivorSeries in your name my friend.

And thank you to whomever made this art piece. It was sent to me, and it is brilliant! pic.twitter.com/dB9v2YXA9S

— Merri-Lee (@RealKeithLee) November 18, 2020

"Obviously Broly's my guy," he added when asked which character resonates with him the most. "Broly has kind of been my favorite for a long time. But I think that a lot of people can relate to a lot of different characters on there. Goku's kind of this natural, and he takes his beatings but gets stronger in order to protect the people he cares about. And then you have this guy Krillin who is always weak, but will step forward whenever necessary to try and protect the people he cares about. And then you have people like Vegeta, who are kind of the entitled and, 'I am a prince, so I should be better than all of you.' All of these different characters most people can find a way to relate to in terms of their thought process, and I think that that's something that makes it connect with people a little more than most."

On the subject of Broly, Lee said he prefers the rebooted version from the 2018 film rather than the "Legendary Super Sayian" version introduced back in 1993.

"Definitely the movie [version]," Lee said. "That whole 'I'm really angry because as a baby, you cried a lot' was pretty bad to me."

While there haven't been any attempts at an official live-action version of the series since the infamous Dragonball Evolution in 2009, there's always the possibility a studio will attempt to adapt the franchise in the future. If and when that happens, Lee knows of a few characters he'd love the chance to portray.

"I mean, if I had the opportunity, I would be Broly, obviously," Lee said. "But I think from a realistic standpoint, one of the most probably possible, probably be Piccolo. Either that, or a Cell or a Majin [Buu] form of some sort."