Swerve Strickland Calls Controversial AEW Match “Beautiful Masterpiece”
Swerve Strickland has been a breakout star in AEW who has a lot of pride when it comes to creating memorable matches and moments.
At the AEW Revolution pay-per-view, Swerve Strickland challenged for Samoa Joe’s World Title in a triple threat match that also featured “Hangman” Adam Page. The match ended when Joe beat Page to keep his title while Swerve was unable to make the save.
Since Revolution took place, Swerve has made it clear he is still coming for Joe. The fans are certainly behind Swerve, and he appears to be transitioning from being a top heel in the company to being one of the most popular babyfaces in AEW.
The match that many people consider to be Swerve Strickland’s breakout performance was at Full Gear when he beat Page in a gory “Texas Death Match” that ended after 30 minutes when Swerve choked out Page with a steel chain. That match also had a memorable, bloody moment when Swerve dripped blood into Page’s mouth, which drew a big reaction due to how crazy it is to do something like that.
During a recent interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Swerve opened up about why they did that memorable bloody spot in the Full Gear match.
“He was so infuriated with rage that he’s going as far as to drink my blood and spit it out in the air because he wants a part of me. He wants me, like, you’re not going to forget this. It’s almost violating another man. Since I violated his home, he’s violating me. I was like, this is a lot of blood. A lot of blood. That’s all I was really thinking about like, this is a whole lot of blood and I still have to run and move and fight and hopefully I can see because I could barely even see because it was just so much. I never bled that much of my life.”
“It is easy to go into shock and like, I have anxiety because you’re not supposed to witness your blood like leaving your body so much. It’s not supposed to fountain out. I was just like, ‘Okay, stay calm. You’re okay. Your breathing is good, you’re not hyperventilating, and you’re not getting lightheaded. You’re good.’
Then I go outside. Then piledriver on the barricades. I was like, ‘Okay, it’s still going, it’s still going, it’s still going. It won’t stop going.’ So like, water bottle and that coagulated a little bit so that the blood just became sticky. My wristbands were full white and then by the end of the match, it was red gauntlets because I just kept wiping my face. It was so bad, it got to a point where I just fell down on the mat and I wiped my face off because there was nothing else to wipe my face off of. It was a horrific, beautiful masterpiece.”
Chris Jericho Believes Swerve Strickland Is Future World Champion
It isn’t just the fans who have gotten behind Swerve because top AEW wrestlers like Chris Jericho believe in Swerve Strickland. In a recent interview, Jericho said this about Swerve’s future.
“I’m a huge fan of Swerve. I think eventually he’ll be our world champion. I mean, it’s just a matter of time at this point. He’s got the cool factor. He’s new. He’s fresh. He can talk. He looks great.”
“I mean, he’s a guy that can be a crossover super-super star, which is I think exactly what AEW needs to go to the next level, someone like Swerve or someone like Will Ospreay that people don’t really know, that have the look, they have the uniqueness, they have the charisma, and once again, I’m not just talking about inside the ring. I’m talking about outside the ring because that’s what wrestling is.”
Keep watching AEW television to see if Swerve accomplishes his goal and makes Jericho’s prediction true as well.