It would be the moment everything Swerve Strickland has worked for will manifest — the payoff for him and the fans who have pushed him to this point.
The 33-year-old spoke about holding the AEW world title and becoming the promotion’s first black world champion from the day he stepped into the company in March 2021, four months after being released by WWE.
Strickland has his best opportunity to make that reality when he faces Samoa Joe for the AEW World championship in the main event of the Dynasty pay-per-view at Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis on Sunday (8 p.m., Bleacher Report, Triller).
“It’s a culmination of just sacrifice, hard work, going against the grain, literally proving things to yourself. Not just proving things to the world,” Strickland said. “Proving it to yourself that what you believe in truly can change the perception of you in the world.”
When Strickland was let go by WWE after being the North American champion in NXT and leading the “Hit Row” faction to the main roster, he signed with AEW with a world championship on his mind.
He felt most fans thought WWE dropped the ball by letting him go, but saw some who didn’t believe he could reach the heights he strived for.
Sunday is about repaying people’s faith that he would make good on the promise they see in him.
“The biggest part is paying off the fans for investing ever since I came into AEW,” Strickland said. “It was a really big when I was let go by WWE. It was a fact that a lot of people, the majority of fans were just like, ‘Oh man, they made a big mistake. What’s gonna happen next?’ Because I feel like people always believed in me in a sense, but there were still a lot of doubters who didn’t see the potential and it was proving a lot of those people wrong and leveling up to the potential of the fans who did believe.”
That took time.
Strickland uses the 1993 film “Demolition Man” starring Sylvester Stallion and Wesley Snipes to describe his character’s evolution in AEW.
In the film, the world is in perfect order with no crime for those who live within the upper-class domain, while Snipes’ character rails against it in an attempt to survive in a world that isn’t as welcoming to him.
For Strickland, that was the justification for all the bad and violent things his character and Mogul Embassy faction did for most of his run — doing whatever it took to get the opportunities his character believes were handed to others at the top of the company.
It culminated with his feud with “Hangman” Adam Page, with Strickland’s character going so far as to create a movie-villain-type scene with manager Prince Nana invading the former AEW world champion’s home and son’s nursery before their Texas Death match at Full Gear in November.
Then a funny thing happened.
Fans started to get even more behind Strickland after three straight wins over Page — who was doing whatever it took in the storyline to deny his rival the AEW world championship — including the bloody Texas Death match that many put up there with the best of the genre.
Fans loved what he was doing so much, that Page and Strickland pulled off a successful double turn during a time-limit draw in February on Dynamite to set up an AEW championship triple-threat match at Revolution where Joe pinned Page after it appeared Stickland had it won.
“Doing the bad things I did [in storyline] to get to where I need to go, people understood that,” Strickland said. “I think that’s where it turns from being a bad person and a heel and villain to almost like the anti-hero. The guy who is just trying to get to the opportunity that these guys were gifted from Day 1 [in AEW]. This guy is coming from being let go by a major company, fired unfairly. Then here, he’s getting title opportunities but he’s not winning them. ‘You know what, we’re riding for this guy.’
What Strickland is most proud about his feud with Page is that even after five matches together since October the audience isn’t tired of their story.
“People still want to see more,” Strickland said. “They still think there is so much more meat on the bone. Now people are still suspecting [him on Sunday]. His presence is still looming around even though he hasn’t been on TV in like a month. People still expect and want to see more. Nothing feels really stale about it.”
There are other reasons Strickland gradually turned the audience in his favor.
Bringing Nana in as his manager last April with his viral dance moves unlocked an added layer of entertainment to the package of him and Mogual Embassy in their promos and fans dancing along with Nana. There is no one else in wrestling like him in Strickland’s mind and it “broadened a lot of the ideas of how we can be on screen.”
Despite getting the best of Page, Strickland believes losing other big matches contributed to fans’ eagerness to see him finally raise gold in AEW.
Since last May, he lost two opportunities at the AEW International championship, fell short of the final in the Continental Classic and then missed out on the world title at Revolution.
It’s allowed Strickland to do something he feels he does best.
“I got further in my career losing than I did winning,” he said. “Every time I lost I moved forward. That’s a genuine skill that a lot of people don’t know how to do and I feel like that’s one of my benefits. That’s one of my biggest gifts. No matter what, I turn a situation for me.”
He’s also made sure not to lose the character’s grit and the edge that’s won him the hearts of fans.
Joe — who Strickland describes as having that “big bad feel” and being the next mountain in his way — has been an ideal opponent to do it against.
During the contract signing leading up to the match, Strickland signed the paper in his own blood after a beatdown from Joe and last week he did a ridiculous top rope stomp to the outside onto a group of security guards just to coldly stare down his opponent in the eyes one more time before brawling.
“Those elements are what got the fans to buy into what you were serving them,” Strickland said. “Once you start mixing up the recipe a little bit, people don’t feel that genuine connection anymore. The first album that you made that put you on the map was full of all this raw emotion. It was a little gritty and stuff. But now the fact that you got the record deal and your turn and stuff, you got to still stick with who made you what you are. You got to stick to the source material, that grittiness and that underground feel.”
Stickland would become world champion at a unique time in AEW’s history with the company looking to boost live event attendance and grow its ratings all while in the middle of critical media rights renewal talks with Warner Bros. Discovery.
He said the company’s decision to release the CM Punk-Jack Perry altercation security footage from All In to try to boost interest in Perry and the Young Bucks vs. FTR tag team championship ladder match at Dynasty is “not necessarily my thing.”
But he respects AEW president Tony Khan and Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, the company’s executive vice president, and their belief it was the right call.
“That’s kind of why they are in the position they are,” he said. “They see something in it and sometimes you got to trust them. Even if it’s not necessarily what you would do, you got to trust the people in the position they are to do something like that.”
Strickland also sees some unique things he can bring to being AEW’s world champion in addition to the freshness of potential new feuds and stories. He does believe it’s possible he could tap into the fact that he spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves for the first time since his days in Lucha Underground now that he’s a babyface.
Strickland calls helping bring the next business jump for AEW the “biggest challenge” should he become champ.
“I have a lot of outside connections with the entertainment business so that right there is something I want to dabble into a little bit more, take that to new heights, put AEW in a different viewing point than what a lot of people have seen from it already and that’s a high bar in itself,” said Strickland, who release an album in 2022 and collaborated with artist Flash Garments on his current AEW theme song. “Different style of matches, different style of story, different style of not just competitive but different style of storyteller.
“I have never been the run-of-the-mill type of person. I’ve always kind of steered things in a different way and I have a lot of different ways to do that in AEW than I could anywhere else and I’m at a different stage where I can really take the ball, the keys to this lovely household which is All Elite Wrestling is in the industry which is such a baby and let’s mature it a little bit.”
The table is set for that after the company brought in “known home run hitters” in free agents Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone’. Strickland has had very little interaction with all three in his career and is happy they are on his team.
“I want to be a part of that and I want to be the leader of that,” he said.
For that to happen, he will need to take the AEW world championship for Joe at Dynasty, making good on everything he and his fans have seen in him since he joined the company.
“It was justification for why I was the way I was [in storyline]” Stickland said. “It was tapping into the fact that, it almost felt like, ‘Dam, this guy is fighting and surviving off of scraps for so long. Man, when is this guy going to finally get his turn to have a meal at the table?”
Sunday could be Strickland’s first taste of the next level of stardom he’s hungered and fought for.