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Though they don't have an on-screen relationship that will live on forever, the career of ex-AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland has been unequivocally impacted by the late, great Bray Wyatt.
Discussing their relationship back in WWE during an interview with Wrestling Figure News, Strickland revealed how he and Wyatt became friends and how much his mentorship had a lasting impact, even as he transitioned over to AEW.
“To me, Bray Wyatt changed wrestling television, and I don’t think it’s going to be realized for some more time just how impactful he was. ‘This is so unique and different and much more captivating than people understood and realized.’ Even for me, I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was until I got put in the position to have to make interesting television,” Strickland noted via Fightful.
“I took so much nuance from what he was doing and put my spin on it because he was meta-physical and very fourth-wall breaking and speaking to the people. He was leaving nuggets here and there and trinkets like ‘this represented his past, this was depression, this meant anxiety,’ all the puppets meant different things and past moments of his life. It was so cool and I wanted to take pieces of that, and even if I could get 10% of that creativity, I’m going to try and make it my own thing.”
Though the duo went their separate ways when Strickland moved to AEW, when Wyatt passed, he knew he wanted to pay tribute to his fallen mentor, which came full circle when he had JoJo Offerman perform “Ain't Nobody” during his entrance at All In Texas.
“When he passed, it was painful for me because I was with him in the locker room. Not for years, but I was with him when The Fiend was really taking off. When I was getting on 205 Live and on the road, he was the guy giving me hugs, and he would bust my balls because I was wearing pinstripes on my boxers. ‘You’re not going out there and wearing that, are you? I’m just playing, you can do what you want.’ He would do things like that. I’d be at the urinal and he’d be in full Fiend gear right next to me with the mask on and look over, ‘Sup, man?’ Just little things that he would do,” Strickland noted.
“He had a big impression on me in the short time I got to interact with him. I wanted to pay that forward to him. Having JoJo come out this year at All In and do another tribute with the fireflies on the titantron, and have her sing Ain’t Nobody. Just mix those little trinkets, nuggets, and pieces of storytelling for her and show more appreciation to the family.”
With fireflies behind them, Offerman and Strickland made a moment wrestling fans will never forget at All In. Though he may be gone, it's safe to assume Wyatt would have loved it.
