When Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative in 2022 and began rehiring many of the performers he helped to cultivate during his time running NXT, some felt as though it was only a matter of time before Swerve Strickland rejoined the rest of his Hit Row members in WWE.
On paper, it made sense, right? Strickland was booked very well in NXT, and with the other three members of the faction, B-Fab, Ashante “Thee” Adonis, and Top Dolla all signed back to SmackDown, a reunion of the Swerve Scott character felt like a cherry on top of WWE's new creative decision, especially since fans were lukewarm on his booking at the time.
Fortunately for AEW, it sounds like Strickland never seriously considered walking through that “forbidden door” once more, as he explained in an appearance on the Smooth Vega podcast.
“That comes from experience. I had a different experience than those guys had. I’ve known how to build myself from the ground up on the independents. I knew how to hustle, get here, get to there, put on performances and matches, and then go, ‘How do I get that?’ Then monetize that into this and make this into something. Everything, throughout my career, and to this day, I apply; one thing leads to another and to another. That’s kind of how you see those little things in my entrance and my music, my wrestling, my look, the sound, all that was weaving together from going from here to here to hustling. That’s something those guys still need to learn,” Swerve Strickland shared on the Smooth Vega podcast via Wrestling Headlines.
“It’s tough in that organization, WWE, it’s really tough creatively when you don’t have your hands on your creative, and it’s left to the powers that be to maneuver you how they see fit, and that’s not easy for anybody. For me, I was in a place where I knew I needed to be. I needed to be in AEW. When I got the phone call to go back, I didn’t even answer it. It was, ‘Nope.'”
Would it have made sense for Strickland to consider going to WWE and finish what he started with Hit Row? Sure, plenty of ex-WWE guys have shown an interest in returning to WWE when they hit the open market once more, with Andrade officially making that switch at the 2024 Royal Rumble. Still, if Strickland was bought back into WWE's system, fans would have never gotten the pleasure of seeing Prince Nana dance to “Big Pressure” or watching the sudden Death match specialist become arguably the hottest act in AEW as he prepares to challenge “Hangman” Adam Page and Samoa Joe at Revolution. In the end, it's safe to say Strickland made the right decision, bet on himself, and won.
Swerve Strickland believes AEW's moral is “excellent.”
One of the biggest stories of 2023 in AEW was the promotion's perceived morale problem, with leaks coming from within the promotion at a startling frequency when compared to the early years of its operation and CM Punk famously getting into his second and final backstage fight at the biggest show of the year, All In.
Asked about the promotion's perceived morale problem on Smooth Vega, Strickland let it be known that he doesn't see what some have reported as he feels that her coworkers genuinely enjoy being part of AEW, with most issues regarding the normal ups and downs of being a working professional wrestler.
“Morale has been excellent. I haven't seen any issues. I haven't seen issues when morale was said to be down. I had a good time, the people I worked with had a great time,” Swerve Strickland said via Fightful. “Name a work place that doesn't have people having issues with what's going on at their job in their position. People want to get better and move up the card. People want to get more TV time and to be the champion. People want a match with him or a match with her. That's everywhere.”
In professional wrestling, like in life, it's easy to be in good spirits when things are going well. When a star is being booked well, being given quality screen time, and being fed fantastic competition that draws attention to their in-ring work from inside the IWC and from a mainstream audience, it's hard to imagine them feeding lines to reporters about how poorly their promotion is being run. Maybe Strickland feels good about AEW right now because he's having a moment, but based on his reaction to WWE's outreach when he was firmly in the mid-card, it's safe to say he has a flair for independence that fits perfectly in Tony Khan's company.