Shane “Swerve” Strickland recently spoke with Paste Magazine for an in-depth interview promoting AEW ALL IN 2023 on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
During the discussion, The Mogul Embassy leader spoke about what it’s going to feel like performing in front of 80,000+ fans on Sunday, as well as the backstage atmosphere heading into the biggest show in company history.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On how wrestling in front of 80,000+ fans at All In is going to feel unreal: “It’s gonna feel unreal. Now, my mind is just on the task at hand. And it’s just like, the performance and getting to the match and being in that moment, and being that professional superstar that people want to see. It’s not going to hit ‘til like after, to me. That’s when it’s like, I’m settling in my hotel room afterwards. That’s where it’s really going to come down to like, a lot.”
On whether he watches his matches back after he wrestles them: “I do. If I have a good feeling about the match, I watch it back immediately. And then I want to try to watch them back more and maybe get into like, oh, “this would have worked better with this.” The timing, the crowd participation, when something could’ve been better used here rather than just going to do this. I get into stat mode, almost. But I gotta watch it a couple times to do that. But I do try to watch the enjoyment factor because at the end of the day, you still want to enjoy what you’re doing.”
On what the feeling is for the roster backstage as they head into All In weekend: “Right now I see a lot of calm faces. I feel like it’s not gonna hit everybody ‘til we get there. I feel like we’re all in the same boat. We’re all focused on the arrival of getting to the big moment. And once the moment’s here then everybody’s gonna feel it. And I feel like nobody’s really going to feel that moment till they step into that stadium before the show, and really just take it all in. That’s going to be the moment for everybody. But right now everybody is really calm, cool, collected, and focused. We have a really focused locker room right now. I can honestly say a motivated locker room. And the people that aren’t on All In or All Out are even more motivated than the guys that are because they want to get to those next time.”
Check out the complete interview at PasteMagazine.com.
