AEW Champ Swerve Strickland On Not Thinking Pro Wrestling Would Be His Career

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland began his wrestling career 15 years ago, started training with Ground Xero Training Academy, and eventually led him to wrestle in several promotions such as MLW, DEFY, WWE, and now AEW. However, Strickland has now revealed that pro wrestling was a passion of his that he never thought he could turn into a career. 

Speaking on "Drinks With Johnny," Strickland explained that in the early stages of his career, wrestling was unrewarding. However, throughout his journey, he understood the true meaning of passion and ultimately decided to put his full effort into believing in himself. 

"I didn't even think wrestling was going to really be my career. I just started something and wanted to see how far I could go or how good I could really be on something like pro wrestling and that's where I really found out what passion really was. Passion is something when you love something but doesn't love you back and you just keep going. Wrestling wasn't easy at the beginning, it whooped my ass a lot of times, sometimes it was like I gave something, I got nothing back, I gave more, I got nothing back and then it's also people outside of you telling you like, 'Why are you doing this? What is this for? Oh you're being a pro wrestler? Yeah, okay.' So when it comes to that, it's just like, 'Okay, but I'm going to keep going just there's something about it that's pulling me towards it.'" 

Strickland achieved his long-standing goal of becoming the first black AEW World Champion, and he will have his biggest test yet when he faces Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door. 

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