Swerve Strickland was formerly working on WWE’s developmental brand before joining AEW recently. He made his debut in AEW on the Pay-Per-View Revolution 2022.
Swerve Strickland signed a contract with WWE on April 17, 2019, and began working at their Performance Center.
He appeared on 205 Live and SmackDown in addition to NXT. Strickland was eventually released from his WWE contract on November 18, 2021.
Speaking on the Getting Over: Wrestling Podcast, the former NXT North American champion, minced no words about his belief that Triple H didn’t utilize him to his full potential.
“I feel like he liked me and he respects my talent and my ability. But I don’t feel like he ever truly bought in and invested until I made him have to with Hit Row” Strickland began.
“He’s one of those guys like, he has those talents on the show that he knows and he’s well-acquainted with and it’s hard for him to deviate from those guys” Swerve revealed.
Strickland went on to explain:
“When he’s set on someone, he’s set on them. Anybody who says that he doesn’t, like, I wouldn’t call it picking favourites, but if somebody says he doesn’t have his core guys, you’re one of the core guys. Do you know what I mean?”
The 31-year-old mentioned a few superstars that could have been given a push but Triple H missed them.
Strickland feels that Triple H had an identified core that he focused on, more than the others.
“They’re like ‘what do you mean, he’s great’. I’m like ‘no sh-t.’ But there’s a lot of like, to this day I feel like he missed out on Matt Riddle being a world champion because he was focused on core guys” Swerve noted.
“I feel like there were times he missed out on a Bianca Belair because he was focused on his core girls. You know, there’s a lot of missed opportunities with certain areas because he was so focused on certain people and you kind of have to because he’s running a product that, on a weekly product, you kind of want to go to your go-getters. You know, your guaranteed guys.”
Strickland lost his NXT North American Championship to current champion Carmelo Hayes. He had a decent run with the title that lasted 105 days. He was part of the popular stable known as Hit Row. However, soon after being included on the main roster, all four members of Hit Row, Strickland, Top Dolla, B-Fab, and Ashante “Thee Adonis were released from WWE.
Strickland made his in-ring debut in AEW on the March 11th episode of AEW Rampage and defeated Tony Nese.
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