AEW superstar Shane “Swerve” Strickland recently appeared on the Corner podcast to discuss his pairing with Limitless Keith Lee, and how he responds to fans criticizing the duo because they think they should be singles wrestlers. Highlights from the interview are below.
Addresses fan criticism of him tagging with Keith Lee because people think they need to be singles-stars:
And that’s the thing when you talk about culture. Like, there’s so many times where it’s okay for these group of people to do something but when these group of people do the same thing, it’s like, no, it’s an unfathomable idea so it was okay for Kenny Omega and Adam Page to be two singles stars holding Tag Team Championships, right? But when Swerve and Keith [Lee] do it, ‘No, they need to be singles stars.’ I’m like, y’all just had probably two of the best tag champs ever in the company were two singles stars. So why do we move the goal post for certain people? Because are we visualizing us in a different realm or is it just like a different criticism for how we go through things? It’s just certain things I notice and it’s a fine line. We can run with that.
On black wrestlers crossing over to the mainstream general public:
That’s why we gotta keep doing it [Black talents crossing over into the mainstream]. We gotta keep doing it because obviously it’s not. The treatment — like I said, the goal post moves. It’s okay for these guys to do it but when we do it, it’s like, ‘Eh, I don’t know. This is still the standard.’ I’m like, I did everything this person did twice over but, ‘Oh, this is the best in the world.’ I don’t understand. These forums talk about the same people every week, the same people. Y’all talk about the same people every day, every week. We get it, we know. I’m not taking nothing away from them, but y’all are missing out on other people that are doing sh*t and killing it and changing the game because y’all are talking about the same people every week and then y’all have this argument, ‘Oh, nobody out there is special.’ You talk about the same people every week, every day. Y’all look in the same glasses every day. The same goggles with the same things and then have the complaints that don’t — they’ll be like, ‘Oh, when is there gonna be a Black person to challenge for the AEW Title?’ Uh, did Dante Martin just not wrestle Adam Page?… Now he don’t count? Now, the goal post moved because he doesn’t count. But, because you talk about the same — MJF, [CM] Punk, great acts, y’all killing it. Literally putting AEW on the map doing some special stuff but, don’t take away the fact that Jade Cargill’s still killing it too. Yeah, she’s doing some really special stuff.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wresting)