During AEW Dynamite earlier this month, a segment was filmed at Nick Wayne’s home involving Swerve Strickland and AR Fox. In the segment, the two men would enter the garage where Nick was training, taking out his training partner before brutalizing Nick with a vicious attack. Swerve would hit Nick over the head with a glass picture frame containing a photo of Nick with his late father.
The incident would lead to Nick bleeding heavily and reaching for his phone. Swerve noticed and made Nick unlock his phone and call Darby Allin, with Swerve taunting Darby over the phone.
Speaking to Raj Prashad of Uproxx, Swerve reflected on the segment.
“I knew this is something that hasn’t been done in wrestling in a while, especially to this degree. And with the story we have, the connection we have, it’s a little more powerful. And how young he is, it’s a little more shocking, too,” Strickland said. “I want to go in new, unique ways. That’s something I also don’t want to bastardize to the point where you see it so often. Those should be moments that change either my character perception or the perception of the character that is being acted upon. Those need to be key moments (where) we need something big to shift the new story. Those need to be monumental moments that you don’t forget. Because if you do too many of them, then it kind of get lost in the wayside.”
Strickland continued, “How do we get people to really care? If you see (Wayne) wrestle, this kid’s going to be something one day. Why should we care? Well, now he’s got a reason to. And then A.R. Fox is being involved. Okay, we like A.R. Fox, he’s athletic and he can wrestle, he’s really good, but why should we care about him in this mix? Well, now we got you a reason to. It was more emphasis to bring the realness and authenticity to what we’re trying to tell you and rather than just like, I want to beat you because I think I’m better than you or you want to beat me because you think you’re better than me. No, I want to hurt you because you’ve done something to me in the past that I have not gotten over and now I’m going to do all these things to get back at you on a personal vendetta. Now it’s like, oh, we’re dealing with dangerous men over there. We got to call in the cavalry, which was Sting.”
Swerve Strickland
Swerve will compete on AEW All In this Sunday as he teams with AR Fox to take on Sting and Darby Allin in a double coffin match.
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.
You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel, or any of your favorite podcast platforms.ⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘ
