AEW star and former NXT North American champion Shane “Swerve” Strickland recently joined the Punch Out show to discuss a number of different topics, including the sole reason he chose AEW over other companies, and how he is always looking to break through to the next level. Highlights are below.
Why he chose AEW over other companies:
Production. It [AEW] was just the biggest production that we could have, that you could have and it was all at your disposal. I’ve always been a fan of New Japan, but there’s things that — as far as great matches, I can have great matches in New Japan all day but for me and my podcast and my music and branching off into acting and bringing crossover appeal, there’s not much you can really do in New Japan as far as that. Ring of Honor, it was announced that they were having their final [farewell] soon so there’s no growth with that as well for me. IMPACT Wrestling is doing it very well, but I don’t see the great big picture appeal with IMPACT, because I just look at it as I don’t just wanna have good matches or whatever. To me, that’s the given, you should be able to have good matches at this point. In my career, I should be able to have good matches wherever I go, you know?
Says he is always looking to break through, whether it be with wrestling, music, or acting:
But I’m always looking for the how big can I really make it? I always wanna take it to the max, like once again, I was talking about my podcast career, it’s like, I’ve dipped the toe in. Now I’m like fully engulfed into this media thing. Now I feel like, what’s the next level of that? How much further can I go? With the music career, how much further and deeper can I go? It was just like making an album or two with my friend in the studio. Now it’s like, okay, now we can get big features, big music videos, bring the production up and then, oh, at the GRAMMYs, how can I maximize all these things? What’s a promotion that I can truly maximize all these things [in]? And AEW and Tony Khan, having a conversation with him before signing with AEW, that fully solidified it for me because he understands the vision and my purpose and the best way to utilize all these tools that he has at his disposal for me to utilize as a star and an employee.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)