Swerve Strickland Earned AEW Trust After Facing NJPW Legend
Swerve Strickland believes his performance in a bout against Hiroshi Tanahashi on AEW Collision earned him the trust of Tony Khan.
The former AEW World Champion made his return to the company at AEW WrestleDream on 12th October having been absent from screens since contesting a brutal bout with ‘Hangman’ Adam Page at AEW All Out in Chicago on 7th September.
Strickland’s defeat to Page came just days after losing the company’s top title to Daniel Bryan in the critically acclaimed main event at AEW All In, which emanated from London’s Wembley Stadium on 25th August.
Despite those two losses, 2024 has seen Strickland made huge strides in his career with a string of high profile bouts against the likes of Christian Cage and Will Ospreay since capturing the AEW World Championship for the first time after defeating Samoa Joe at AEW Dynasty on 21st April.
During a recent appearance on ‘No-Contest Wrestling‘ , Strickland pinpointed the moment that he believed was the catalyst in the company trusting him with a big push, naming a June 2023 bout with Tanahashi as a key moment in his career:
“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 the moment 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.”
Swerve Strickland Accepts AEW Challenge
Recent AEW signing Shelton Benjamin defeated Lio Rush in his debut match with the company on the 16th October edition of Dynamite and wasted no time in setting his sights on Strickland after the bout.
It didn’t take long for the former AEW World Champion to accept the challenge, however, with Strickland and Benjamin set to meet at Fright Night Dynamite on October 30th after the contest was made official.
H/T: Fightful for the above transcription.