There was a time in the not-too-distant past when Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee, collectively known as Swerve in our Glory, was one of the hottest acts in all of AEW. They were cool, they were strong, they had indie pedigree and NXT/WWE intrigue, and when it came to in-ring efforts, they could go toe-to-toe with just about anyone and come out on top in the end.

While AEW fans eventually let it be known that they preferred The Acclaimed, who Tony Khan recently called the most popular tag team in the promotion's history, the will-they, won't-they nature of Strickland and Lee's booking, with the former routinely hinting at turning on the latter, kept fans wanting to watch more and see how things would fall out when the two friends eventually split up.

Well, as it turns out, the decision to break up Swerve in our Glory was an easy one for Strickland as he had to cut the dead weight because his former partner just couldn't do what needed to be done to get the job done, as he detailed to Lexy Nair after AEW Rampage on Friday.

“Think these guys are changing me? Maybe this is something I’ve always been,” Strickland said. “You ever thought about that? Has anybody in AEW ever thought about that? Maybe this is what Swerve always was, or what I’m destined to be. I’m noticing that nobody’s willing to take it to lengths they have to to be successful. The ones that do get all the glory. Speaking of glory, Swerve in Our Glory is dead because of Keith Lee not being able to do what was necessary to win, to be successful. To win championships, to get this money. I am. I see the vision, I see it, way before anybody else does. All the doubters, I see them. I see them every day, every week, taking all this mess about Swerve and Mogul Affiliates. This is a brilliant idea. Why are these guys with him? I don’t care. I know what this is about.”

While Lee did compromise his morals a fair bit to team with Swerve, and was awarded for doing so with a championship run with the AEW World Tag Team Titles, in the end, “Limitless” simply wasn't willing to dig down to the same depth as Strickland, which eventually included kidnapping and finger manipulation, to get the job done. Strickland's new affiliates, Parker Boudreaux and Trench, apparently, are willing to sink that low, and as a result, they are now in the services of Rick Ross and “The Realest,” who has been pretty open about his intentions to rid AEW of second-generation stars who he feels didn't work for what they have.

Swerve Strickland lays out his plan for AEW's legacy stars.

Fully finished shooting off a stray in Lee's direction, Strickland turned his attention toward his current AEW foe Dustin Rhodes, who ran out with a ring rope tightener to fight off the Moguel Affiliates after they started beating down on Brian Pillman Jr. at the end of his match. After working up from nothing to become a former champion in AEW, Strickland takes particular issue with performers like Rhodes and Pillman, who he feels were handed opportunities that they didn't earn.

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Swerve Strickland with a text bubble reading "But let’s be real, we are the best wrestling" next to Grayson Waller with the AEW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Chris Jericho with a text bubble reading " He is the right guy for the job" next to Swerve Strickland with the AEW Dynasty logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

The blacked-out silhouette of Booker T with a text bubble reading "H*ll of a worker" next to Swerve Strickland with the AEW Dynasty logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

“Now as far as Dustin Rhodes and Brian Pillman Jr., some other privileged guys getting everything they wanted, getting hand-fed all the success, all the legacy, all the glory from all their fathers, getting them into the business,” Strickland said. “I had to work for mine. I didn’t have a third-generation, second-generation, first-generation father or mother to get me to where I am. I had to do it on my own. Parker, did you have that? Trench, did you have that? No, none of them had anything. We’re more in common than anybody thinks. We gonna build this from the ground up. This is the first generation of something that you’ve never seen before, something that AEW has never seen before, something the wrestling industry has never seen before. Right now, I’m loving what we’re doing.”

Did Rhodes and Pillman get a boost early in their careers because of who their fathers were? Yes, Dustin worked with Dusty in WCW at the very beginning of his career, and one could argue that Pillman wouldn't have gotten his opportunities in MLW or AEW without his connection to the “Loose Cannon.” Still, in wrestling, like everything else, it's not about how you got to the party but what you do at the dance; if Strickland can best Rhodes like he did Pillman, he'll be able to prove that his ideology is the correct one.