Swerve Strickland Discusses How WWE 'Promised The World' To Keith Lee

Former AEW Tag Team Champions Swerve In Our Glory have a storied history together that started long before they obtained gold as partners. The duo became well-acquainted on the indie circuit before being signed to WWE around the same time, bringing both men to perform in "NXT" during the same phase of the Black and Gold era. When both of the promising main roster stars were released from their WWE contracts, they didn't take much time to rebound and make an impact in AEW, which they felt was necessary, as Strickland revealed during a recent episode of "The Sessions With Renee Paquette."

"Me and Keith, we literally tagged on the indies before he got signed to WWE, and that was like 2017. He is someone who also has just as big of a chip on his shoulder as me because he was promised the world, and unfortunately for him, he got sick too, and it wasn't an easy just have some Robitussin and get up and go, no, he was like facing death. He was out of commission for a while, you know? So, I feel like he has a chip on his shoulder for his career and for personal reasons with his life, as well."

Strickland looked back at some of the most defining moments of Lee's career like his Royal Rumble confrontation with Brock Lesnar, his impressive run-in with Roman Reigns at Survivor Series, and others, noting that he watched each segment live. Having a megastar like Lee as his partner inspires Strickland to "step [his] game up." "I look at him as literally one of the best influences in our industry from a culture side, in so many different ways," Strickland added. Sadly for the team, Swerve in our Glory recently lost their titles to The Acclaimed on "AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam."