Ahead of his big title match today At AEW ALL IN: LONDON, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland spoke with Barstool Rasslin’ about the match.
Swerve on the possibility of ending Bryan Danielson’s career at All In:
“That’s one of those things I talk about being unique in the title ring. Like, what’s more unique in my championship reign than ending the in ring career of, one of the greatest of our era of Bryan Danielson, one of the greatest to ever wrestle inside of a wrestling ring. His era of Ring of Honor, he was the pioneer for what you get on wrestling television, not just in all the wrestling, but in every company that you see. You know that independent style, that hard hitting, the grappling, the Ring of Honor, that pace, that style, has truly been revolutionized, and it’s made it to mainstream now. That’s like a huge thank you to like a Bryan Danielson for being one of the pioneers of that and it’s part of the reason why I do what I do and how I wrestle, the way I wrestle, and why I look up to a lot of these guys the way that I do. Us both being from the state of Washington, there’s a lot of pride in the Pacific Northwest on both sides of that. I always wanted to be the king of the Pacific Northwest. Be like, one of the guys that’s you think of Seattle, you think of Washington, you think of Tacoma, you think of me. There’s this overbearing shadow of Bryan Danielson. If I take that out, it’s just me now, so there’s a lot of pride in that for me.”
On the AEW locker room:
“It’s been great. I think that’s everything’s been exploited. Like, definitely been blown out of proportion with a lot of things, because they say this every other week, but it’s like, go back to last week. What did you hear? Go back the week before. Go back to last month. Go back to almost, like six months now, you heard nothing, so therefore, to me it’s almost calculated to a T. Right before every pay-per-view, right before every big moment we have, there’s always something that comes out because it’s like, there’s always bickering in the locker room. That’s universal in any workplace. I’m pretty sure you have it with people behind the camera. I’m pretty sure people have said some things that they’re not particularly proud of or you’re not happy about. It happens, but it’s not made for the internet. It happens and then it goes away. It happens everywhere. To me, I’d rather have people care and be upset about something than not give a damn at all. Like, these people are passionate about their jobs and their work and what they do, and they’re also probably the best at what they do, so those people take a lot of those things to heart. That shows me y’all care. To me, it’s about who’s saying what, to how loud it’s being said, to what forum and I feel AEW is always on the defensive of those things, and that’s what comes with being the alternative, like, where you have to play defense in those scenarios, but that doesn’t stop us from continuing to put on great product and great shows. That doesn’t stop us from people wanting to still come over and be in All Elite wrestling. That doesn’t stop any of that. So you can have fun with the story, but then, like, okay, cool. We’re back to business, making this money, and doing great business and growing.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Barstool Rasslin with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
