After months and months of feuding with Adam Page, with the duo going to war on multiple occasions, including an absolutely incredibly Pay-Per-View Texas Death match at Full Gear in Los Angeles and a three-way match at Revolution that saw the “Hangman” get suspended for attacking a referee, Swerve Strickland finally gets to test his mettle one-on-one against Samoa Joe, one of the most dominant performers in professional wrestling history who has held world titles in almost every major promotion in the world today.

No pressure, right?

Sitting down for an interview with Aubrey Edwards and Will Washington on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Strickland explained how excited he is to work against Joe one-on-one, as that challenge is tough enough on its own without Page sticking his “Anxious Millennial Cowboy” nose into their business.

“The fact that now, you've seen the contact. You've seen the brutality between myself and Samoa Joe leading up to the Pay-Per-View match. That makes it different, too. You know how we interact with each other already. Prior to before the triple threat you didn't really you didn't really know how myself, and Samoa Joe were going to really interact in a match itself,” Swerve Strickland explained via WrestleZone.

“You've seen what me and Hangman Page can do. But a lot of those elements are taken out. I don't have that distraction. I don't have another blood feud in the way. This is just me and Joe, man to man, a legend in his own right, and probably the most brutal world champion we've ever had. So, that in itself is a challenge.

“Just facing Joe standing across the ring from Joe verbally, physically, that's a challenge. So, all this is just a challenge. And last week, I showed that I was up for the challenge by doing what I did, like interfering like two times throughout the night, just like knowing that I'm not afraid. I know what he's capable of. But at the same time, I got to put in place that he needs to know what I'm capable of as well.”

If there was ever a chance for Strickland to unseat Joe and become the next AEW World Championship, Dynasty would be the show, as Page won't be around to ruin the match – probably – and the “Realist” is riding a ton of momentum heading into the show. If the bout is a true one-on-one, with only Prince Nana around ringside, this might just be Strickland's match to win.

Swerve Strickland acknowledges that all of his ideas haven't worked.

Elsewhere on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Swerve Strickland touched on all of the different gimmicks he's had in Tony Khan's promotion, noting that while they weren't all successful, he's willing to take those risks because how how much he loves the business.

“There's peaks and valleys to that kind of thing. Bringing in a Rick Ross and you see what Rick Ross is doing now in our world, that's a risk in itself. All these things are risks that I was willing to take and I have to put my name on it. Not everything was successful, and I'll be the first one to admit that. But I'm willing to take the risk because I'm willing to go after and go get it.

“What I learned is people are willing to work with you and do more for you and work with you if they know that you're willing to go out there and go after it, go get it. And that's what I learned across all these platforms. That's what made me who I am. That's what got me in the position that I am in right now. What it means to me is just like being worth the position I am is all of that.

“All the risks, all the sacrifices, all the pain and heartache, all the doubt like having to take time away from my children to make sure I can move forward to make sure that takes off later on. You miss a lot of birthdays, miss a lot of weddings, miss a lot of funerals.

“I lost my grandmother earlier this year, and I wasn't able to be there for the funeral. So that was something that sticks in my mind all the time. So, pushing forward it makes me want to pay that back. Like, I didn't miss that for nothing. I didn't miss my daughter's birthdays for nothing.”

You know, if TK doesn't plan to give Strickland the belt moving forward, he sure is having him cut a lot of big-time babyface promos, as there hasn't been another performer pushing their good guy ways this hard in AEW since… Cody Rhodes? Granted, Strickland is still a heel, and he'll probably return to those ways once a true challenge emerges in the future – he might just earn the title of “best wrestler in the world” on the very same show – for now, it's clear Swerve is being pushed like AEW's next great babyface, and that honor will likely be awarded to him properly at Dynasty.