Swerve Strickland speaks on his relationship with Will Ospreay.
Strickland is one of the top AEW stars right now and has continuously teased being the first black AEW World Champion. This is something that is deeply personal to Strickland, who has spoke in the past about the struggles of being a black professional wrestler.
Strickland has had a friendship with Will Ospreay for quite some time now, and the pair have battled on the independent circuit several times over.
Speaking with Grapsody, Swerve shared that he doesn’t have a list of matches that he wants to have.
“Man, I don’t even have a list of matches I want anymore. I just go out and perform. I want to be the one on everybody’s list. I don’t want to make lists anymore. That’s where my mindset is. [Will Ospreay], I’ve been there, done that, with Will since 2011/2012, when he was 19 years old. Even then I knew this is gonna be the best in the world. Y’all don’t even know. Then, three years later, it was like [Best of the] Super Juniors. He won, and I’m like, ‘Y’all still don’t understand what this man has to offer.’ Then three years later, like he’s killing in Tokyo Dome. Then, I was like, ‘Y’all still don’t know what this man has to offer.’ Now he’s 30 years old doing what he did at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door with Kenny, and I’m like, ‘Man, I told ya, I’ve been saying it. I’ve been singing his praises. That’s been my little brother for years. In the UK, staying at his house with his parents and stuff. I’ve known all along like that dude was going to change the game, and sure enough, he did. He’s always had my full support, so whenever we get like — we just tagged actually this year on a Rampage randomly, so you saw us together but when the time is right, when we got some hardware to put up on the show for it. That’s when I want to do it. I want to do it when it means something, when things are on the line when there’s things to lose. I want to take. I’m a taker, I want to take something from you,”
Swerve Strickland
Strickland defeated Hangman Adam Page at AEW WrestleDream, but came up short in his matchup with Bryan Danielson on Tuesday’s Dynamite.
We will have to wait and see if Strickland will in fact become the first black AEW World Champion.
H/T to Fightful for transcription
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