Swerve Strickland: Kofi Is A Role Model To A Whole Generation of Kids

Swerve Strickland knows a lot of wrestlers want to see the New Day make their arrival at All Elite Wrestling.

On May 2, the news broke that Kofi Kingston (Kofi) and Xavier Woods (Austin Creed) of the New Day would be requesting their release from the WWE following a situation where they were asked to take a pay cut by TKO on their current contracts but ultimately decided on leaving after over a decade with the company.

Former AEW Men’s World Champion Swerve Strickland was asked about the duo and spoke about the impact they have made on the sport, plus how inspirational they are to a whole generation of kids who aspire to become professional wrestlers in the future.

“There’s a lot of wrestlers that want to see them end up in AEW. I talked to them the same day. Kofi took another day to get back to me, but they’re in high spirits, they’re motivated, they’re happy. I feel like they have the ball in their court which is what they always wanted. They have the ball in their court and they honestly feel like they can control their own narrative, and Xavier is really good at that. Kofi is walking [as a] free agent for the first time in his whole career. He was a Hall of Famer like five, six years ago. He was a Hall of Famer then, and to add the World Title match on top of that. He’s the only black wrestler to ever win the World Title at Mania. He’s the only one. That’s something you can’t take away from him. Never had any negative press on him, never had any issues, suspensions, fines, never any of this. So he’s walking out a role model to a whole generation of kids.” – Swerve Strickland said on Bootleg Kev.

Strickland has not been on AEW TV in quite some time, he recently said on social media that it was because the company is afraid of what he will do to Bandido, the current ROH Men’s World Champion.

h/t to Fightful for the transcription.