Dave Meltzer discussed Swerve Strickland’s AEW contract, which is reportedly one of the largest deals in pro wrestling history, in a recent issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The amount is believed to be higher than most wrestlers, with the exception of Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton, and is similar to what Kazuchika Okada and Mercedes Mone receive.
According to Meltzer, “The deal, and the offer to Daniel Garcia, were told to us by someone on the WWE side for Garcia and more than one on Strickland, as being bad for the sport because they are so far over what would WWE would perceive the market value for both to be, with the idea he’s spending more than he needs to and raising salaries.”
On the “Keepin’ It 100” podcast, Konnan discussed the following:
“I think what WWE did was when AEW started, they started overpaying people to stay. I think they figured out, we don’t gotta be paying these people all this money when we got NXT and we can get wrestlers from there and groom them, so they started to let them go. Tony literally gets mad when certain wrestlers leave, so what they’re doing now is they’re making him overpay all these wrestlers so he can keep them.”
Konnan continued, “What has Swerve really done to garner any extra attention or draw any extra fans, but if he wants to keep them because from what I understand, they talked to Swerve and they talked to Daniel Garcia and that was enough for him to go, hey, these are my guys. I’m going to overpay them. Why would Swerve stay there unless he’s thinking, let me get paid for the next five years and be a very rich man and in five years, if they don’t bury me, which they probably won’t, I’ll still be viable and I can go over there. I would have gone there right now because they probably would have made him a big star. They wanted to take Prince Nana with him which, not hating, I’m just stating, I don’t know what the f**k he adds to Swerve except he’s like Flava Flav. I guess nobody else could do that except Prince Nana. He thought of going, ‘Who’s house?’ Wow, that’s gotta be one of the greatest ideas I’ve ever heard in wrestling history. Why don’t you make him the booker?”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
