Swerve Strickland On The Service AEW Provides That Others Can't
Swerve Strickland signed with AEW last March, debuting at the Revolution pay-per-view. Just a few weeks before, Keith Lee would also join the company, and eventually the two would pair up to become the tag team Swerve In Our Glory. They would capture the AEW World Tag Team Championship at "Dynamite" Fyter Fest: Night 1 until being dethroned by The Acclaimed at "Dynamite" Grand Slam. And with a newfound respect for tag team wrestling, Strickland would praise AEW for making it a "regularly featured piece of the puzzle" on the podcast "Under The Ring: Pro Wrestling Conversations."
"It's something that is providing a service that not a lot of other wrestling promotions on television can do in the way that we do it," he explained. "And I felt that's what makes our product so special."
While Strickland stressed that he was not faulting other wrestling operations for their approach to tag team wrestling – "That's great for them because that's what worked for them" – he had all the love in the world for AEW doing things differently.
Making History
"I feel like the tag team wrestling is one of the big things that pulled audiences from other fan bases to come watch us because we were doing tag team wrestling in such a different way," said Strickland, noting how, in AEW, audiences will see "two top single stars who are two former AEW World Champions, as tag teams and tag team champions."
"Kenny Omega and Adam Page set the mark for tag team wrestling in AEW," he continued. "That's very different and very unique, and I feel like that's what drew a lot of people to AEW in the first place."
Strickland added that Swerve In Our Glory's match with The Acclaimed at All Out marked the first time that two African-American teams fought for the AEW Tag Team Championship at a pay-per-view event.
"That's the level of putting tag team wrestling further, in another sense," he said, remarking how that match offered "different variations and different unique ways to present tag team wrestling to our audience, who's always been watching and following us for that."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Under The Ring: Pro Wrestling Conversations" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.