Swerve Strickland Discusses History With Fellow AEW Star Will Ospreay

AEW fans are gearing up for one of the biggest AEW World Championship matches in company history later this month as Swerve Strickland defends his title against Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door. Newer fans to professional wrestling might see this bout as a first-time ever dream match between two of AEW's hottest stars, but actually, Strickland and Ospreay have crossed paths multiple times before.

During a recent edition of "Busted Open Radio," Strickland reflected on what it was like to stand across from Ospreay at the end of the May 28 edition of "AEW Dynamite" and admitted that he's proud of the Englishman for evolving so much over the past decade.

"I think there's going to be me and Will several more times," Strickland said. "We've had, honestly, bouts throughout the last 10 years. I've wrestled him in a four-way the first time I came to the UK like 10 years ago, and he was like this 19-year old kid and I was like 'this dude is cocky, arrogant, and he knows how good he is then,' and I was like 'I love him, I love him, I love everything about him.' Standing across from him, all the way, 10 years, through to standing across from each other on live television, I'm a world champion, he's an international champion, we're headliners now, it was like I couldn't be more proud of him."

Strickland and Ospreay have faced each other all over the world in companies like CZW, wXw, and RevPro. However, when it comes to one-on-one action, Strickland has the better record against the AEW International Champion having beaten him twice, while Ospreay has only gotten the better of the AEW World Champion once. 

Please credit "Busted Open Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.