Swerve Strickland Points To When He First Really Felt AEW Fan Reaction

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland has revealed the first time he felt a strong response from the AEW fanbase and the specific event when he realized the audience was behind him.

Strickland defeated Samoa Joe for the AEW World title just over a month ago at AEW Dynasty and is now one of the top babyfaces in the company. Strickland's popularity has grown over the last year as a heel, and during a recent interview with "Bootleg Kev," he described the moment he knew the fan interest in his character had grown.

"When it was really a pop was New York, was Grand Slam," said Strickland. "I didn't wrestle on Grand Slam but we had the Mogul Embassy, Gates of Agony, they wrestled the Young Bucks and Hangman Page on 'Rampage' that night. So Grand Slam is Arthur Ash Stadium, big, big, big venue, we were coming out pretty late on the show on 'Rampage' and so the Gates and Agony and Nana go out to do their match, I come out in the middle like right before commercial break ... my music hits, Nana stops, looks up the ramp and goes boom, starts hitting the dance and the whole crowd starts doing it with them like in unison, like boom I was like we got it. Now we got them." 

Strickland explained that after the Grand Slam show in New York, Prince Nana's dance during his entrance became more popular week after week, eventually leading to the entire audience interacting, dancing, and singing along as he walked down to the ring.

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