Swerve Strickland Has No Interest In Returning To WWE, Believes AEW Is Where He Needs To Be
Swerve Strickland believes AEW is his home.
Back on November 18, 2021, Swerve Strickland was released from his previous employer, WWE. During that time, he was part of the Hit Row faction, on both NXT and then subsequently, Friday Night SmackDown. However, after only less than a month after a call-up – they were all released.
Once his 90-day non-compete clause had officially concluded, Swerve went on to sign with All Elite Wrestling.
Appearing on the Smooth Vega podcast recently, Smooth stated that Hit Row went on to struggle in the WWE without Swerve and said the feeling wasn’t the same.
Fightful had the following transcription:
“That comes from experience. I had a different experience than those guys had. I’ve known how to build myself from the ground up on the independents. I knew how to hustle, get here, get to there, put on performances and matches, and then go, ‘How do I get that?’ Then monetize that into this and make this into something. Everything, throughout my career, and to this day, I apply; one thing leads to another and to another. That’s kind of how you see those little things in my entrance and my music, my wrestling, my look, the sound, all that was weaving together from going from here to here to hustling. That’s something those guys still need to learn. It’s tough in that organization, WWE, it’s really tough creatively when you don’t have your hands on your creative, and it’s left to the powers that be to maneuver you how they see fit, and that’s not easy for anybody. For me, I was in a place where I knew I needed to be. I needed to be in AEW. When I got the phone call to go back, I didn’t even answer it. It was, ‘Nope,'” he recalled.
Swerve did not go on to state when he officially got the phone call from WWE for a potential return to the promotion. But he has been under the same AEW contract since March 2022.
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