New AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland Turned Down Chances To Be International Champ

Swerve Strickland, who became the first Black AEW World Champion at this weekend's AEW Dynasty pay-per-view, revealed that he turned down the chance to win the International Championship.

Strickland, in the post AEW Dynasty media scrum, said that his only goal was to win the world title and not any other championship in the promotion.

"I wasn't going to settle for anything less. I think I was offered opportunities for the International title and I turned it down," disclosed the new AEW World Champion. "No disrespect to Orange Cassidy, what he was doing at the time with the championship, but I can't settle for less and I want to shoot for the top. That's how everybody's mindset should be in this business, that's how everybody's mindset is in AEW. We want to shoot for the top, we want to go to the main event, we want to fight and grind."

Swerve had one chance to win the International title when he faced and lost to then-champion, Orange Cassidy, last year. The former WWE star touched upon the caliber of stars on the AEW roster, and how he has to keep pushing further because of the competitiveness in the locker room.

"We had five matches tonight that could've been main events, easily. That's how competitive we are, that's how special this roster is. I got to have that mindset to push even further. I can't settle for less 'cause nobody else is," said Strickland.

Over the last year or so, Strickland has reiterated that his main objective in AEW is to win the world title. Strickland's win over Samoa Joe at Dynasty resulted in him winning his first singles title in AEW, with his other sole championship being the AEW World Tag Team title, which he won with Keith Lee. The new champion had the opportunity to win the title earlier this year at Revolution when he was in a triple threat match with Joe and Adam Page.