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Though they've yet to wrestle a match as a trio, or even work a tag team match on AEW Dark, Dark Elevation, Dynamite, or Rampage, Swerve Strickland and his new faction, the Mogul Affiliates, have found a way to make things interesting within the AEW Galaxy with their potent combination of big word talking and the brutality to back it up.
Sitting down with Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell of Fightful's The Wrestling Perspective podcast, Strickland was asked about his current schtick in AEW and let it be known that he feels a lot of pressure to show his full creative self not only in the ring but in his entire presentation.
“Oh yeah, there's a lot of pressure on me, as far as that goes, but I put that pressure upon myself. There are many people in the fan base that doubt that,” Strickland said. “I feel the conditioning is to doubt what they're uncomfortable with, what they're not used to. They doubt it right away. That's the adversity that we go to when, and that's like, honestly, that's the weight that we bear as entertainers, as artists, performers.”
You have to give it to Strickland; he certainly hasn't shown an ounce of disregard for entering uncomfortable situations in AEW, as he almost immediately hinted at a breakup with Keith Lee when the duo became a babyface tag team and have since gone on to form a group that is very much a question mark to more than a few fans of the promotion. Still, as Mogul Affiliates continue to build toward being an actual in-ring team instead of a solo act with two heaters, Strickland would like nothing more for his friends than for them to establish themselves as their own men in AEW.
Swerve Strickland wants to establish a unique spot for all the Mogul Affiliates.
Discussing his strive for uniqueness in AEW, Strickland noted that he isn't just looking out for himself in AEW and would instead prefer to bring up his constituents, Trench and Parker Boudreaux, with him, especially the latter, who has been known as “Baby Brock Lesnar” since his early days in WWE developmental.
“You want to give fans something that hasn't necessarily been done. I kept listening and seeing social media, saying that “we wanted you to have two other high flyer's. We wanted you to have a trio [team] to go against Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks, and other trios guys, like Top Flight. We wanted that, oh, that's what you wanted. Well, I'm not gonna give you that, then. I'm going to take these two guys and make something you did not know. It's what you wanted, and that's going to take time to do. Having Parker slowly wipes that comparison away, I don't want him to be compared to anybody.”
Standing 6-foot-4, 310 pounds, it's not hard to see why some would call Boudreaux “Baby Brock Lesnar,” especially with his offensive move set, but if Strickland has his way, fans will start to associate him for what he is: himself.
“I don't want my other man [Trench] to be compared to anyone, either, especially since he's so new. The best thing about him is that you can't compare his look to any other wrestler, and I think that's the beauty of it,” Strickland said. “You can't really compare me to any other wrestlers out there either, that's the beauty of that. Parker, we’re going to mold him into something where he’s just not trying to put on this persona that he’s like, ‘Oh, I have to be this. No, you’re such a cool, laid back dude, with being in the hip-hop circles and so involved in the culture and stuff like that with us. We have to start showing people that. We have to start making people feel like, ‘Oh, okay, I see where he’s at now. Now I’m feeling him.’ That’s how you wipe away the whole Brock Lesnar comparisons.”
Will it work? Will Strickland not only be able to get the Mogul Affiliates over but do so in a way that establishes Trench and Boudreaux as legitimate forces in AEW worthy of big-time spots in the promotion, as opposed to simply being the supersized heaters of a maniacal madman on a path to eliminate all of the legacy talents from AEW? Either way, it's clear this is Swerve Strickland's vision, and it's cool of Tony Khan to actually let him see it through, regardless of the ultimate outcome of the match.
