When WWE fans look to discredit more than a member of the AEW roster, the first line they'll throw around to discredit the promotion is that it's full of ex-WWE guys.
Jon Moxley? Sure, he's a massive star in AEW with one of the best resumes in the promotion's history, but he was also Dean Ambrose, the OG member of The Shield and an ex-WWE Champion. Bryan Danielson? Sure, many fans would consider him Mr. Ring of Honor for defining the formative era of that promotion, but his WrestleMania 35 moment apparently makes that moot. What about Christian Cage? Sure, he's become the sort of singles star no one ever pushed him like during his time in WWE or even TNA, for that matter, but he's still one half of Edge and Christian, who will go down as one of the defining tag teams of the TLC era. Go right down the line, and if a performer was on RAW or SmackDown, they are WWE guys in the eyes of a decent portion of the fanbase, especially if they ever held gold on the main roster.
And yet, when you look at the top stars in AEW right now, arguably the very top name on the list is Swerve Strickland, the former World Champion who, for a time, was known as Swerve Scott in NXT's Hit Row faction.
So what gives? Why do these fans not look to discredit Strickland for being just a WWE guy but instead suggest that WWE fumbled the bag when it comes to the “Realest?” Is it because he swapped out Top Dolla for Prince Nana and “Now You Know” for “Big Pressure?” Well, maybe it's because he's booked like a true star, instead of just a member of a gimmick faction with no true shot at the World Championship.
Sitting down to discuss his wrestling career with Rich Eisen on his namesake show, Strickland was asked why he never got to his current level in WWE, and though short, his answer is incredibly telling.
“Political moves. Just political moves, I can say,” Swerve said via WrestleZone. “I’ll just leave it at ‘political moves.'”
Translation: somebody, probably Vince McMahon, didn't believe in him as a top-tier star, either because he's 6-foot-1, because he marches to the beat of his own drum machine, or for another reason that can easily be speculated.
Asked by Eisen why he was able to get so over in AEW by contrast to his cup of coffee on SmackDown, Strickland was much more open in that answer, noting that he took every opportunity presented to him and ran with it.
“Opportunity and time I worked my way up from the bottom, I don’t care. You can put me in battle royals, I’ll lose them all, I don’t care. Just give me the opportunity to show out. Give me the opportunity like ‘Hey, can I get a minute of TV time right here in this spot?’ ‘Absolutely.’ ‘Okay, I’m going to make something matter,'” Strickland explained.
That’s something that you just can’t ask for anywhere else. You can’t just ask for a minute and get it, that’s really tough. I don’t care if it’s Dynamite, Rampage or Collision or Ring of Honor, getting television time forwarded to you is valuable. It’s up to you what you do with it. It’s about opportunity because there’s a lot of people out there I know that are very, very talented that would dream of getting a minute’s worth of television opportunity.”
Had Strickland re-signed with WWE like some fans wanted – not that such an opportunity was possible since he was under contract with AEW – who knows where he would be right now, but considering only Cody Rhodes has really become a top star since jumping from AEW to WWE, it's unlikely he would be anything more than a contender for a mid-card title, which he has lapped in Tony Khan's company multiple times over.
Swerve Strickland talks building a relationship with Tony Khan
Elsewhere in his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Strickland broke down his relationship with friend of the show, Tony Khan, and how that has helped him to find a home in AEW.
“It wasn’t always about me and what I wanted, and I had to learn that too middle way through of my tenure in AEW. I had to learn what Tony needs, what can I provide that Tony needs right now,” Strickland explained via 411 Mania.
“That he’s looking for, and he just can’t find it, or there’s nobody to offer it to him. He needs me in tags, I’ll go in tags, cool. What does he need, he needs a great challenger to face Orange Cassidy for the International Championship, give it to me. I’ll do it, all right. We need a good match out of Sting, we need something big for him, Swerve can do it. That’s what built the relationship of just like put me anywhere, I’ll make it work.”
While wrestlers don't have to get along with their bosses to succeed, as the most famous storyline of the Attitude Era was “Stone Cold” Steve Austin feuding with his horrible boss, it's clear Strickland has built up equity in AEW in a way that has made him a trusted hand for the young promotion, which is probably why he was booked like a true star on what is widely considered one of the better World Title reigns in the belt's history.
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