Swerve Strickland Details First Meeting With Tony Khan Prior To AEW Signing

It's been over a year since Swerve Strickland first arrived in AEW at Revolution 2022, and it's been a strong run so far, with Strickland winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship with Keith Lee, then later turning on Lee and forming the Mogul Affiliates. So now would be as good a time as any for Strickland to talk about how his arrival in AEW came together. He did just that during an appearance on Say Less With Kaz, Lowkey and Rosy, revealing that he attempted to reach out to AEW owner Tony Khan towards the end of his 90-day noncompete clause, after being released from WWE. Strickland credited his cousin, Grapsody's Will Washington, with helping him and Khan connect.

"He [Washington] and Tony talk a lot of times, exchanging information," Strickland said. "He [Tony] was like 'Hey, what's Swerve's information?' We got it, exchanged it, we got there." Strickland revealed that he and Khan spent most of their meeting talking football, which Strickland described as a process of getting to know each other. This was important to Strickland, who wanted Khan to understand him as a person, believing Khan already understood him as a performer.

"So I wanted people to understand the person I am, the mindset I have, the drive that I have, the business that I bring with that," Strickland said. "And he understood that. And then it was just like 'Oh, you can do this? Here you go.' He lets me go with a lot of creative freedom, the hip hop, bringing the artists in, certain ways I want to shoot stuff. I get really cinematic with a lot of things on camera, if you've seen me kidnapping Billy Gunn."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Say Less With Kaz, Lowkey and Rosy and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription