Swerve Strickland On Who He Looked Up To For Inspiration And Guidance

Lee South Samoa Joe vs Swerve Strickland St. Louis, MO AEW Dynasty April 22, 2024

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland spoke with Complex on a number of topics, including The New Day and how they influenced him.

Strickland said, “Those guys gave me love every week and they don’t have to. But I’ve always made sure to speak out and say ‘you guys influenced me.’ Kofi Kingston [in particular]. In my own way hopefully I did it justice. Hopefully I did him proud.”

On Mark Henry and MVP:

“I got calls from Mark Henry. MVP gave me a nice warm embrace there.” “It’s just cool to be in that circle. I can talk to these guys about this because I kind of earned it in that way. Because you always want to be in that conversation in a sense. ‘Do I belong in that conversation? No. I really am in that conversation now. So I can talk with them in a different way. We’ve done it in our own respective eras and times.”