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As crazy as it may sound now, what with being one of the premier professional wrestlers in the world today, there was a time when Swerve Strickland just couldn't seem to find his footing as a member of the WWE Universe.
Initially starting things off as a singles guy, Strickland worked on his character, worked on his wrestling, and slowly worked his way up the card, but in the end, it never really got too far along, even if he eventually found a schtick that worked as a member of Hit Row.
Discussing why his run in NXT was so radically different from his time on the indies and his current efforts as one of AEW's top stars on O'Shea Jackson Jr's No Contest Wrestling Podcast, Strickland revealed that he repeatedly tried to get on Paul “Triple H” Levesque's good side during his time in Orlando. The problem? He could just never seem to become one of his “guys,” no matter how many times he talked to the then-NXT booker one-on-one.
“So, I approached Trips [Triple H], and I was just like, ‘Yo!' We had several conversations months before, and I've said this in other interviews. I was like… I kept asking him, ‘What do I got to do to be one of your guys?' You can tell who the guys are… You can just tell who's really getting the rocket and the attention. They're always main eventing, they're always on the Live shows, they're always,” Strickland explained via WrestleZone.
“I'm like, ‘Who's to say I can't do that? You've hired me because I did that. But now you're saying I can't do it here.' So, I was nice about it, and I was patient about it, like, ‘What do I got to do to be one of your guys?' I had those conversations three times. Three different months. And then, when that taping happened, I'm like, ‘Why am I not one of your guys?' And I pressed him on it.”
Why didn't Levesque see Strickland as a premier star? I mean, sure, his gimmick now and then are vastly different, and he's taken steps forward that even a savvy wrestling mind like “The Game” might not have seen coming. Then again, considering it took some time before Tony Khan thought Strickland could be “the guy” too, it's worth wondering if WWE just didn't invest enough time in “The Realest” before kicking him to the curb.
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Swerve Strickland reveals how he earned Tony Khan's trust in AEW
Turning his attention to how he got massively over in AEW, Strickland detailed when he really caught TK's attention and slowly worked his way from a mid-card guy to an act capable of main-eventing Wembley Stadium.
“If I had to guess one, a lot of people like to pinpoint one area, but I would say the battle royal at Double or Nothing. If it doesn't come down to me and Orange Cassidy, I don't spark the thing with Tony of being like, ‘He made this amazing. Let's do it again.' I don't spark that idea in Tony Khan's mind,” Strickland recalled via Fightful.
“Through the office, from talks I heard, it was me and Tanahashi on Collision. It was going into Forbidden Door. He was about to do the High Fly Flow, and he slips off. I run up and start fighting him up there. He knocks me off and, gives me the High Fly Flow and wins. That was when Tony was like, ‘I can trust him in anything.' I can trust him with anybody and anything. That might be what saved the New Japan relationship with AEW. He became President soon after that. He gets hurt, that goes away. After that, I started wrestling veterans. RVD, Jeff Hardy, Billy Gunn, Sting. ‘Swerve can make it work.' Bring on the task, please.”
While Strickland may have been down after being released from WWE mere weeks after becoming a member of SmackDown, in the end, he landed a choice gig in another premier promotion and is currently reaping the benefits of his hard work. Alls well that ends well, as they say.
