From McQuaid to Smackdown: WWE's Luke Harper loves home

Joshua Barnett | USA Today Sports Network

Show Caption Hide Caption WWE Superstar Luke Harper coming home Jon Huber, also known as Luke Harper in the WWE, has come a long way since he was a student at McQuaid Jesuit in Rochester.

At least once a week, one of Jon Huber’s nearly 350,000 Twitter followers posts his McQuaid Jesuit yearbook photo from nearly 20 years ago. He looks like a clean-cut teenager in tuxedo jacket and bow tie, typical of yearbook photos.

What makes the photo such a keeper, though, is what Huber looks like these days — long hair, shaggy beard, wild gaze and sleeveless T-shirt that he wears in front of 2.5 million viewers weekly on SmackDown Live on USA Network.

Because while he’s Jon Huber to his friends in Rochester, he’s Luke Harper — a performer for World Wrestling Entertainment — to fans around the world.

“It’s staggering, actually,” Huber says of the difference in appearance. “I just look like a young, goofy kid. And now, I guess I’m just a big, goofy adult with a beard and less hair.

“I went to high school every single day in an all-male Jesuit school at McQuaid with short hair, no beard, suit jacket, tie. To say I didn’t really enjoy that would be quite the understatement, so I’m a little more comfortable with the way I look now — but take nothing away from McQuaid. It was a great place.”

Huber, 37, played lacrosse for four years at McQuaid and also played hockey in independent youth leagues, including a time with Aquinas graduate and Buffalo Sabres captain Brian Gionta.

More: Get to know Rochester's hometown WWE superstar Luke Harper

Perhaps his entry into high school lacrosse was a precursor to his current line of work.

“My friends talked me into it, but they give you a 6-foot stick to hit people with and I said, ‘Well, that sounds fun,’ ” he said, laughing. “And for four years, that’s what I did.”

After traveling thousands of miles in a wrestling career that has spanned nearly 15 years, Huber gets a rare appearance in his hometown Tuesday.

SmackDown Live will air from Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial on Tuesday night for the first time in five years.

The show begins at 7:45 p.m. before the national broadcast of “SmackDown Live” at 8 on USA Network and 205 Live on WWE Network at 10 p.m.

It brings Huber back to an arena he visited regularly as a kid. A lifelong hockey fan, Huber loved the Rochester Americans games and cheered Amerks Hall of Famers Jim Hofford, Jim Jackson and Jody Gage in the 1980s.

“Those were the glory years," Huber said, referencing the team but indicating the arena could stand a few upgrades to return to glory. “I just think Rochester could do better for an arena, and I think if we had a better arena more things would come here. I think SmackDown would come here more often, more shows, better concerts.”

The venue also will provide a unique test of a long-held belief in WWE storylines known as the hometown curse. Performers rarely get to win in their hometown. Huber has wrestled at Blue Cross Arena three times since joining WWE and is 0-for-3. He expects a large contingent of family and friends on Tuesday.

“I know about (the curse), and I feel that,” he said. “I actually had a really great match with Dolph Ziggler here that I thought I should have won and I didn’t. That really sticks in my craw. It’s something I think about … but it’s nothing that’s in my control.”

After moving to Florida for several years during his ascent from WWE’s development brand that is based in Orlando to the main roster, Huber has moved back to the Rochester area.

“I have two dogs, five cats, four chickens, a 5-year-old and a beautiful wife,” he said.

‘Mr. Huber, is this you?’

Huber grew up watching WWE as a fan and then a group of friends built a ring and started to wrestle in the backyard. Huber and his older brother would wrestle with Jon playing Jake “The Snake” Roberts and his brother as “Ravishing” Rick Rude.” Jon was usually on the wrong side of the fight, but he kept growing and suddenly his brother wasn’t so interested in fighting anymore.

“Once I got in that ring, though, it was just instant love,” he said. “It’s become a beautiful and cruel mistress in my life since then.”

Huber’s pro career began on the Rochester independent wrestling scene, with Roc City Wrestling in 2002 and later Rochester Championship Wrestling, NWA Upstate, NWA New York and Upstate Prof Wrestling. After initially working as Huberboy #2 under a mask, he would eventually rename himself Brodie Lee and success followed.

“He had size and agility and just this drive to want to get better,” said “Hellcat” Mike Rosario, the owner of Upstate Pro Wrestling. “He was one of the first guys in this area to really branch out and just find any company that he could go work for and get his name out there and make more connections.

“He wanted it and you could tell. So he went and got it. He got his training here in Rochester, but training only gets you so far. You have go out there and work every weekend and build your character to bigger and badder.”

Keeping his Rochester roots

While he kept his Rochester roots and still wrestled locally when he wasn’t touring elsewhere, he worked extensively for promotions around the nation and for Dragon Gate in Japan, but wrestling on the weekends only got him so far.

During the week, he worked for 7½ years as part of the Rochester City School District, responsible for the textbook inventory as a book clerk at the Frederick Douglass campus. As his name grew and YouTube became more popular, some students began to know that guy in the book room as a pro wrestler.

“Once in a while a kid would come to my office and say, ‘Mr. Huber, is this you?’ And they would show me a video which was obviously me and I would say ‘Please don’t share that with anybody,’ ” he said. “Then a couple others would come in, but they were so cool about it – nobody ever made it a big deal. All the other people I worked with knew what I did. Everyone was awesome there.”

Huber said some of those students are planning to be at SmackDown Live on Tuesday.

Aaron Valachovic, now a special education teacher at Northwest College Prepatory School, befriended Huber when he worked at the school. The two shared a love of music. Months later, a teacher's assistant told Valachovic that her daughter had seen Huber wrestle. Valachavic was stunned. Soon, Valachavic and his kids were in the front row at the German House watching Brodie Lee come to the ring.

“Once he gave me tickets and I saw him perform in a main event at the German House, my opinion of him changed,” Valachavic said. “I knew he had a gift and it was apparent that he had been working hard at his craft.”

Now, Valachavic’s son has a Luke Harper action figure.

“As humble as he was as the book clerk, I never would have been able to predict that Jon would become a WWE superstar,” Valachavic said. “He was certainly big enough, but he was by no means a loud person that showed himself in the hallway. He stayed to himself and did his job. He worked with administration and the students saw him as another adult in the building, except that he was larger than anyone and wore frayed jeans to work.”

The birth of the Wyatt Family

Huber was scheduled to work a tour in Japan for Dragon Gate in the fall of 2011. His wife was pregnant and he wasn’t looking forward to missing key life moments. He decided it was time to stay home.

"I said to her, ‘This is it. I’m done. I can’t be away from you, we just have to figure something out.’ ” Huber said. “I was just going to wrestle locally and I come back from the tour, make the decision, everything’s good, then WWE calls and says ‘Hey, we want you to come try out.’ So, literally, I was as far out as I’ve ever been in my life away from pro wrestling, and they instantly pulled me back in and it was back to it.”

In March 2012, Huber signed a developmental deal. Two months later, he was renamed Luke Harper and working matches in the company’s developmental territory. That led to the birth of the Wyatt Family — and a year later, a spot on the main roster.

“Learning the way I did gave me more of a foundation than if I didn’t,” Huber said. “I’m glad I didn’t get to WWE until I did because I was more complete at 32 than I was at 25. It all happens for a reason.”

Since his main roster arrival, he has been with the Wyatt Family and against the Wyatt Family; he’s won the Intercontinental championship; challenged for the tag team championship; and is now back as a singles performer on the “SmackDown” brand looking for an opportunity.

“By 2009, I used to tell him all the time, ‘WWE is going to sign you,’ said Josh Jeannerat, owner of Squared Circle Wrestling, which ran shows in Upstate New York from 2006-15. “He’s too good of a wrestler and had too much natural charisma. He’s super talented and it helps that he has size. … I was surprised it took them as long as it did to sign him. Maybe he was flying under the radar.

“Of the great wrestlers I’ve known who have gone on to WWE, he is the one guy who never changed as far as personality. He is the same exact person he’s always been. He didn’t get a big head. I think he’s being underutilized by WWE. I think they could be doing a lot more with him.”

Call him Jon Huber, Brodie Lee or Luke Harper, he remains inspired by his Western New York roots.

“There’s a different kind of attitude when you come from Western New York,” he said. “You work for everything you get and nothing’s really handed to you. … You realize good work turns to good things, and that’s the edge I always came up with.”

If You Go

What: SmackDown Live

When: 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 6

Where: Blue Cross Arena

Details: Show expected to begin with an untelevised match. SmackDown Live on the USA Network begins at 8 p.m. Kevin Owens vs. A.J. Styles is the advertised main event followed by 205 Live on WWE Network at 10 p.m. and an untelevised main event advertised as WWE champion Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton.

Tickets: $100, $75, $55, $35, $25 and $15, available through Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster charge by phone or the Blue Cross box office.