Swerve Strickland doesn't like AEW's Dustin Rhodes one bit. He doesn't like how he got into the industry, he doesn't like that he's been handed opportunities because of his last name, and he doesn't like that his brother, Cody, is having success in WWE either, as he too is a second-generation star who started his career on third base.
Speaking with Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell of The Wrestling Perspective podcast, Strickland was asked about his current feud with the older Rhodes brother and gave a very interesting answer about his intentions to lay seeds for the future.
“There's only so much of this question I can answer, because there are a lot of seeds. I want to plant for the future, I'll maneuver correctly here,” Strickland said via Fightful. “Honestly, for me personally, what I like to operate off of is his pain and going by the timing of Dustin with his family and everything. There's a lot of pain there, and with that being said, pain can be manipulative. On the outside, you can take that and weaponize it, just like love. Love can be weaponized, and I think like that's what cinema is. We weaponize emotion, and especially with seeing where his brother [Cody Rhodes] was to go over this past weekend. I'm like that's another emotion we can tap into.”
“We can weaponize that too, and it got trickling down to connecting dots and people, targeting pain, weaponizing it, and emotion. Oh man, you see this guy sad on his luck right now. He's not feeling good, but you're in my way, move, you're in my way. Why do you want to talk to him like that? Because I'm sick of it, I don't care, I have the authority now. My ego has the authority now, because I have people with me. So, some people understand that situation. Okay, even if I confront someone like Dustin who can hold his own with anybody, he still has to second guess and stop to think about the situation he's in. Because of the guys, those entities around me, and that's weaponizing his pain.”
Considering Strickland's intentions to put Brian Pillman on the shelf indefinitely after their match on Rampage, a beatdown only thwarted by Rhodes and a ring rope tightener, it's clear Swerve's sadistic ways didn't end when he took a pair of pliers to Billy Gunn's fingers. With Revolution now less than a month away, it's clear the former AEW World Tag Team Champion has a lot more in store for his second-generation foe.
Swerve Strickland believes his current feud doesn't need to be for an AEW Title.
Elsewhere in his interview, Strickland discussed his current timeline and how he's looking to stretch things out with Rhodes, presumably until the two can meet on a bigger stage like Revolution.
“Over these next couple of weeks, I would advise people to pay attention to how I play with these things,” Strickland said. “I don't have it all figured out yet, but that's the beauty of it. That's to me, that's the fun of it. I don't want to think about it. I wanna go off the feel of it, I want to just come to work that day and be like, oh, I got something and it just popped into my head as we're performing. This is how I'm going to hit you, and that's where the fun is, and that's where the confidence comes from. Because now I'm in the field and I'm in the fun of it, so I know it's going to work.”
When asked by Frederiksen and Farrell if he felt the match was somehow less important because it doesn't feature a championship belt on the line, the former AEW World Tag Team Champ disagreed, stating that a championship doesn't always have to be the end goal of every feud.
“A championship doesn't have to culminate in the end for me and Dustin, you know what I mean? It wouldn't, it kind of messes it up. I don't think that's what it needs,” Strickland said. “Right now, where Cody Rhodes is at, a Championship is definitely needed to be placed somewhere in this story. It's the timing, and it makes sense, but the story though is he doesn't get it now. They killed him [momentum wise]. It almost writes itself. Well, again, continue watching the story as it unfolds. You'll see why I'm so deep into this feeling, like there's the legacy of these legends that continue to create problems for me? You'll understand.”
“The timing of the championship will come when you know it, and you'll feel it, and you'll be like, “Oh, we know where this is going.” This is where the momentum swing is happening, and right now I'm okay with what I'm doing and building. I'm okay with creating foundations right now, because I don't want to take off without having the why, where, who. I don't feel it yet. I have to make you feel first, then I can take off.”
Is Strickland hinting at a future title shot in AEW, maybe going for the TNT Title once Wardlow and Samoa Joe are done with their recently relaunched feud? That would certainly be something, especially since it would cement the Rick Ross and the Moguel Affiliates as championship players in AEW, but for now, it's clear Strickland has his eyes on tarnishing the Rhodes legacy, and that will be equally entertaining to watch.
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