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AEW President Tony Khan is known to sign former WWE names, and he revealed that he once wanted to sign a star when All Elite Wrestling started, but the talent was signed with WWE at the time.
The star that he wanted to sign in 2019 was none other than Swerve Strickland. Strickland was signed with WWE back then, and that prevented Tony from signing the marquee star.
During an interview with The Athletic, TK shed more light on the situation.
"After his first match against Tony Nese on Rampage, Chris Jericho walked back to me and said, ‘This guy is really amazing. Where did you find him?’ I’ve been watching him for years. I wanted to bring [Swerve] into AEW when we first launched, but he had just been signed by WWE."
He continued:
"Swerve is a wildcard. We saw that Swerve is a breakout star. He won the tag team championship in his first year and went on to have a massive 2023 while being showcased as a singles star. The idea was to showcase Swerve in feature positions with the intent and belief that crowds all over the world would buy into him. I believed he’d become very popular." [H/T The Athletic]
Given how things have turned out with Swerve, it's fair to say that Tony Khan was right in wanting to sign the 6 ft 1 in star.
Former WWE star Swerve Strickland sends a defiant message before AEW Revolution pay-per-view
Swerve Strickland is one of the most over stars in AEW, and he had a defiant message for his opponents, Hangman Adam Page and Samoa Joe.
The three men will take on each other at Revolution pay-per-view in a three-way match for the AEW World Championship on March 3, in what is sure to be the match of the show.
Now, Strickland took to Twitter to send out a message to his opponents and declared that he was already a champion.
"Ive got to the Hangman mentally, physically, and spiritually. I'm already a champion...Sunday is my crowning," he tweeted.
It will be interesting to see how the match will turn out and if we will see a new AEW World Champion.
Do you think a new champion will be crowned at AEW Revolution? Tell us in the comments section below.
