Wrestle Pedia
Swerve Strickland has garnered acclaim for his remarkable in-ring abilities and captivating personality. Despite a controversial incident involving breaking into Adam Page’s home, Strickland has shifted gears to embrace a babyface persona.
After the dramatic events of AEW Revolution, Swerve Strickland underwent a dramatic character transformation, transitioning from one of the most nefarious heels in AEW to a beloved babyface. Despite his previous villainous antics, including terrorizing Hangman Page and his family during their intense rivalry, Strickland now finds himself embraced by the crowd as one of the company’s top fan favorites.
In his conversation with Claibs Online, Strickland shed light on his recent face turn and the fans’ embrace of his character. Swerve Strickland noted that fans simply connected with him.
“I think the people just connected, and they understood what I’m fighting for. I think that’s as simple as that. People understood that it’s like, you know what? This guy is fighting for a lot more than just trying to just pad his stats in the accolades of AEW and pro wrestling. This guy really has gotten the wrong end. He’s been dealt a bad hand, and he’s doing whatever he has to do to whoever he has to do it to to get what he feels like he rightfully deserves. He works hard for it. I’ve worked hard for it. I do have the talent. I do have the ability. Everything’s there. I’ve worked hard to earn those type of things and this time, I’m taking my destiny in my own hands. I’m taking what I want, not just waiting around and waiting for my career to just fluster and never get the opportunity. No, I’m gonna go after it and I’m gonna take it and I’ll take it from someone who feels like they don’t deserve it, and that’s where me and Hangman’s story really resonated with people is the fact that Hangman’s been at the top of the mountain and he still could have everything that he wanted to, but he kind of just became very passive and content.”
”That’s what you prey on. That’s what guys like me who are still starving and eating and trying to get up there prey on I want to take advantage of the fact that you feel passive. I’m going to take your spot from you and I think people have felt like that in their life. They see that story and then then the fact you added me and prince Nana, it just became entertaining in itself. People truly enjoy getting into my matches. But I feel like the story is really engaging and connected with a lot of people for the fact that they’ve been in that situation in life and they’ve had to do some bad things to get what they felt like they deserved because they were wrongfully taken away from them.”
Regarding fans rallying behind him despite his controversial actions, Strickland stated that fans realized he did not necessarily do anything bad and so him turning babyface so soon made sense.
“Yeah, I think another reason that people kind of turned and went with that is because it was something unique and something they’ve never really seen done in a way that’s…. Is it wrong? Nobody was harmed in the making of that film. I think there’s a little sentiment of people being like, you know what? Was anybody really hurt? Was any harm really done? If not, that was pretty cool. We’ll give them a pass. It’s long-term storytelling.”
Swerve Strickland earned his coveted one-on-one showdown against Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship at AEW Dynasty, so we’ll have to see who will come out on top in the end.
Do you feel Swerve Strickland is one of AEW’s best babyface now? Sound off in the comments section below!