AEW's Swerve Strickland Feels Like Bray Wyatt's Spirit 'Powered' Full Gear Death Match

Earlier this year, the wrestling world was left shocked by the death of WWE star Bray Wyatt, real name Windham Rotunda. In the months since, many performers throughout the industry have paid tribute to Rotunda in various ways, and that includes Swerve Strickland during his Texas Death Match at AEW Full Gear last month. Strickland wore gear inspired by Rotunda's onscreen character, and the AEW star recently explained the decision while appearing on "Notsam Wrestling." Inspiring fear is a big part of Strickland's current character, and that was something Wyatt excelled at.

"I remember when The Fiend was really going, there was a lot of chatter that it wasn't for them, as a fan. I was like, 'No, this is brilliant work,'" Strickland said. "I don't think people really appreciated the brilliance he was bringing to the screen and a lot of risks he was taking, week by week, which is not easy to do."

Strickland stated that part of what made The Fiend so impressive was that, for some time, Rotunda kept the character going on both "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown." Rotunda introduced a new way to utilize horror in wrestling, all while staying an extremely positive presence backstage. At AEW's most recent pay-per-view, Strickland felt he should pay tribute to Wyatt's effect on Strickland's feud with "Hangman" Adam Page, which saw Strickland invade Page's home.

"I just wanted to show appreciation that the love and influence wasn't lost," Strickland continued. "I'm a horror person, and I was really happy to see a new age of horror brought to the screen in an industry that I love and I was like, 'Man, that was a revolutionary.' I wanted to take a little piece of that into what I was doing [at Full Gear]. If anything, I feel like his spirit powered that match."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Notsam Wrestling" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.