AEW star Swerve Strickland recently spoke with Fightful on a number of topics including expressing his desire to face “The Icon” Sting and Darby Allin in a match even before it happened.
Strickland said, “The funniest thing was when I did DJ Whoo Kid earlier 2023, he asked me, ‘Who is someone you want to get in the ring with?’ I said, ‘Sting.’ He was like, ‘Word?’ He was like, ‘What? For real? You think that can happen.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah. I’m sure it probably could happen.’ Little did I know it was going to happen in front of 80,000 people with DJ Whoo Kid walking me down to the ring. So it’s funny how the universe works in that way. That was crazy. Just the fact of being in the same presence as these guys, these aren’t just people I’m just looking up to. These aren’t just guys I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m happy to meet you.’ No, I’m across from you. I’m your equal. Not necessarily equal as far as in-ring legacy, but we’re working together and I gotta work against you and I gotta fight you. I gotta battle this man in a coffin match and in Wembley, man.”
Strickland also talked about facing Sting and Allin at AEW All In 2023.
“Man, it’s still surreal in a sense. Still very unreal to me. The photo of me doing the 450 about to crash onto him is one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken ever. Just to see the background. To see so much symbolism that’s going on in there and to have one of my best friends, Darby, across from me as well. I get to share that moment with him. We were not that long ago sharing hotel rooms in EVOLVE or watching wrestling with Sami Callihan on his couch in Florida and not knowing where we were going to go in our careers. So just to see two Seattle guys, two Washington guys sharing this moment together with Sting, and then I’m tagging with Christian, one of my favorite wrestlers of all time is ‘Edge’ Adam Copeland, and we’re doing double spears to these guys. So that was my big mark out moment right there. That was a moment where I was like, ‘I’m going to sit and enjoy this moment,’ and then get back to work ‘cause we had to do the match. But, yeah, it was unreal. Still surreal to me, to a lot of moments. But now I’m like, ‘I gotta get back to here. I gotta get back to here somehow in a different way.”
You can check out Strickland’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
