Swerve Strickland on AEW All In, Young Bucks, Adam Page Rivalries, Making Music, More

Swerve Strickland debuted with All Elite Wrestling at Revolution in March 2022 and has since climbed the ladder to become one of its top stars.

The former world heavyweight champion is set to team up with Will Ospreay this Saturday at AEW All In to take on The Young Bucks.

Both teams have something to lose. If Strickland and Ospreay win, the Bucks will no longer be EVPs in AEW; if the Bucks win, Ospreay and Strickland will be banned from challenging for the world title until July 2026.

We had a chance to speak with Swerve to discuss his feud with the EVPs, his relationship with Adam Page, making music, having his own pair of sneakers from Reebok, a Predator-inspired entrance at Double or Nothing and more.

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Quotes have been edited for clarity and conciseness. The full unedited interview can be found in the video on the final page.

Swerve and The Young Bucks

Bleacher Report: Setting aside any professional respect you have for them, what is it about The Young Bucks that gets under your skin?

Swerve Strickland: "They use their power to really abuse and shape AEW in a form that only benefits them and works for them.

"Especially when it comes to who they want as champion. Who they want to be perceived as the world champion. They only want Hangman to be the world champion so he can bring the title back to The Elite. To give them more power, you know what I mean?

"They've already got an example of last year with me being the world champion and I kind of bucked the system and I'm the one that's almost like Neo in The Matrix when it comes to having the championship. I'm something they can't corrupt. So that is why they did what they did at Dynasty to keep me from winning that world championship again.

"It's a control thing and AEW was never built on being controlled by a system. The Young Bucks are trying to make that control system happen, and it's not what this place is supposed to be about. I feel like the best way to keep that from happening is us three, myself, Will Ospreay and now Hangman, who sees the light of who the Bucks truly are."

The Relationship Between Swerve and Hangman

BR: Let's talk a little about Adam Page. Where is your relationship at right now? The two of you probably have the most tumultuous history in AEW right now.

SS: "In the short history, we made a lot of noise. That doesn't really happen much in wrestling anymore. I always felt like it's all about rivalries. Rivalries are what truly sell our business.

"It's the same thing that happens in boxing. You want to see the Tyson vs. Holyfield fight. You want to see Mayweather against Pacquiao. Stuff like that. For a little bit, that was lost in wrestling. Me and Hangman ignited it in such a different and unique way. It doesn't really happen often.

"It's very very personal. It's intimate. It's very hate-filled and a lot of emotion behind it, and the fans see that to the point that they gasp when we're in the ring together. Their eyes perk up.

"When he does my Big Pressure Driver in a match with Ospreay, people's hairs stand up on their skin. That's how much attachment people have with our interactions or us being in the same space or mentioning each other's names. I feel like that's what kind of keeps igniting it over and over again, seeing the people still have a reaction.

"Sometimes Hangman goes out in the crowd and you hear 'Swerve's house' chant or I'll be out in the crowd and hear 'Cowboy s--t' chants sometimes. That's what keeps it alive. It's like the fans are instigating it still like 'Come on, we know you want to do it.'"

AEW Doing Residencies

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BR: Do you enjoy doing the residencies in one area and getting to experience that local crowd multiple times in a row?

SS: "We've got Chicago and Philadelphia coming up. I enjoy those. It was really cool with the one we had with Collision in Texas earlier this year. It was something different.

"I feel like those are things we're still experimenting with to get the full benefits from that. Building a chemistry and relationship with those cities because a lot of times when we do those cities, we don't come back around for maybe at least six months. So if you miss it, you're not seeing us for another half a year.

"So, it's actually good to give them like six weeks of opportunities to come out and see the shows and make it affordable so they can keep coming back every week if they wanted to.

"It's a good benefit and it's a good relationship to build trust with the cities, the community, opportunities for maybe some charity work that could be done. There's good partnerships that can be made with those buildings as well. I'm all for it."

How Does Swerve Prepare for Matches?

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BR: What do you do to prepare for a match? Do you have a pre-match routine or ritual or is it like a light switch and you're ready when you walk out?

SS: "It's a bit of both. I don't really have a ritual, but I do have a little routine. I always check on the body first. The first thing I do when I wake up is check on my mentals, because your mental will carry you way further than your body in my opinion.

"I make sure a lot of issues are checked at the door and you want to leave the hotel or whatever venue you are at feeling good before you get to the actual preparation for the match. You gotta feel good before you start prepping the body, so make sure the mental is checked and good and leaving on a positive note.

"You don't want to start that day going to the venue negatively because that not only just affects you and the match, but it also affects the rest of the show and the locker room, so it's very tricky and a tough thing to balance."

How the Military Prepared Swerve for Pro Wrestling

BR: How did military training prepare you for pro wrestling? What did you bring from those experiences into what you do now?

SS: "I think that helped me with going after things that weren't going to get done unless I did it. It taught me about initiative and urgency, especially at a young age because I went into the army at like 17.

"So, I know certain things like if you don't have a will written down, it wasn't gonna happen. If you don't have your travel planned, it wasn't gonna happen. Your laundry, your duties and all the way down to the small things like getting your bunk prepared, getting your uniform pressed, learning the Soldier's Creed and studying up on those things.

"Those things won't get done and you won't advance if you don't get them done, so the responsibility always lies on you. It taught me a lot about responsibility and really taking accountability as well.

"It taught me about integrity and making sure you're doing the right thing even if nobody else is watching, not because you get reward for it but because it's the right thing to do. Those things build your character and pay off later on in life."

Swerve's Music Career

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BR: You're one of the top guys in AEW and that gives you a very busy schedule. You're also a musician. Do you get much time to work on music these days and do you have anything coming up?

SS: "Friday, we actually have a music video dropping with myself and Monteasy. It's a music video and the single 'EMMITT' and will be available on all streaming platforms. And we'll be performing later that night around midnight after the Ring of Honor show as well.

"The music part, I don't feel like it's like 'Do you have time for it?' That is my time. It's not necessarily like you gotta share time with certain things. That is my free time. My free time is music. If I switch my mentality to that, it never feels like I am always working or stressing. It doesn't feel like a task to do. It's just what I do.

"It's kind of like what wrestling has been for the past 15 years and now I'm getting towards the end of the wrestling part of my career. I'm phasing out of that just being my life now and now I'm finding other things outside of wrestling.

"Music is starting to become that and I kind of want to do music to the point where it still stays like that. I don't necessarily want it to become another task and another obligation I have to fulfill."

The Swerve Sneakers

BR: You were recently immortalized with a pair of sneakers. How did that feel?

SS: "It just showed to me how far the Swerve name has gone. It's truly branded now, if that makes sense.

"Swerve was just something I thought was a cool ad-lib in a song from Big Sean. I've talked to Big Sean about it and he supports it. He loves it.

"It's like, wow, something that was just a rap lyric or him saying something to sound cool on a rap song is now branded by somebody else to the point that it becomes a shoe endorsed by Allen Iverson, a legend in his own right.

"That is why I am the franchise of AEW. I'm more than just a wrestler. Now it's a brand and it's spreading to multiple things. And it's my genuine self. It's not something that was put on me. It was something I truly just felt like was me and I felt good about it.

"I created it when I had nothing and now that nothing is making something, so it just feels good. And it feels like it was something I earned. I started out here in All Elite Wrestling with the same opportunity everybody else had.

"I did the AEW Darks, I stayed late for the shows, I wrestled early, I wrestled late, I wrestled on Rampage, Ring of Honor, opening shows on undercards. You name it, I did it. And this is where I truly reap the benefits from doing all those things, but I had just about as good of a chance as anybody in AEW had, for sure.

"The only thing that made me different was I was just my genuine self. I was being myself and truly just never stopped working. I never slowed down. It's OK to slow down, it's OK to go fast, but it's never OK to stop. Keep going forward."

The Predator Gear and Movies

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BR: You recently had some awesome entrance gear. Are you a big Predator guy?

SS: "So funny enough, the new Predator movie that came out on Hulu, Killer of Killers, I saw that after I did the Predator entrance. I knew it was out and I was talking with Kenny Omega and he was telling me about that movie and he was like 'It's incredible. You've got to watch it.'

"I was like 'You got it. I'm gonna watch it when I get home.' After I watched it I was like 'I am so glad I timed this right with that entrance and that movie coming out.'

"I saw stills of the new live-action Predator coming out and it got me thinking. I'm going buck-hunting. Who is the best hunter in the universe? Predator. I just put two and two together to tell a story with that concept and it grew into the entrance that you saw."

BR: Do you have a favorite Predator movie in the series?

SS: "The classic is the first one with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I grew up on that VHS. But Prey is incredible. I just rewatched it again. I still love it just as much. In the end of Killer of Killers, they reference that character from Prey.

"I like the direction where Predator is going, the IP of that. I would like to see Robocop eventually get that same kind of love. Me and Kenny were just talking about these 1990s action flicks that are starting to come back a bit.

"In the video-game world, you have the Indiana Jones game that just came out and got great reviews. Robocop had a game, Rogue City, that came out with great reviews.

"These '90s and '80s films are starting to come back and get some good love and attention, and they don't feel like corny and retro and cheesy. They're actually getting a lot of love and a lot of modernization in the gameplay."