Shane Swerve Strickland shared his admiration for Will Ospreay, among his thoughts on a variety of different topics, in a recent interview with Fightful’s ‘Grapsody‘ podcast. You can check out some highlights below:
When asked about potential matches he’s looking forward to, Swerve emphasized,
“Man, I don’t even have a list of matches I want anymore. I just go out and perform. I want to be the one on everybody’s list. I don’t want to make lists anymore. That’s where my mindset is.”
On the subject of Will Ospreay, Strickland spoke about his long-standing connection with Ospreay, dating back to 2011/2012 when Ospreay was just 19 years old and shared how he recognized Ospreay’s potential to become the best in the world from their early days.
“I’ve been there, done that, with Will since 2011/2012, when he was 19 years old. Even then I knew this is gonna be the best in the world. Y’all don’t even know. Then, three years later, it was like [Best of the] Super Juniors. He won, and I’m like, ‘Y’all still don’t understand what this man has to offer.’ Then three years later, like he’s killing in Tokyo Dome. Then, I was like, ‘Y’all still don’t know what this man has to offer.’ Now he’s 30 years old doing what he did at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door with Kenny, and I’m like, ‘Man, I told ya, I’ve been saying it. I’ve been singing his praises. That’s been my little brother for years. In the UK, staying at his house with his parents and stuff. I’ve known all along like that dude was going to change the game, and sure enough, he did. He’s always had my full support, so whenever we get like — we just tagged actually this year on a Rampage randomly, so you saw us together but when the time is right, when we got some hardware to put up on the show for it. That’s when I want to do it. I want to do it when it means something, when things are on the line when there’s things to lose. I want to take. I’m a taker, I want to take something from you.”
(h/t Fightful)