Swerve Strickland on His Current Storyline AEW Abscense Being Due to AEW Management Being “Afraid Of What I’m Going To Do To Bandido”, Darby Allin’s AEW World Title Victory & Reign, There Is A ‘Time And A Place’ For Celebrities and Influencers Wanting To Wrestle, & More

Swerve Strickland last wrestled in AEW on the March 25th episode of AEW Dynamite in a losing effort to Kenny Omega in a #1 Contender and AEW EVP match for the AEW World Championship. Strickland has made a couple of video appearances but no in-person appearances on AEW shows since then.

Strickland provided an update earlier today on Twitter explaining the storyline reason for his current abscense from AEW and claimed it was due to AEW management protecting Bandido from him.

“As you can see, everybody, I’m not at AEW right now. I’m not at AEW Dynamite tonight in Asheville, North Carolina. I’m here at home because of AEW management. They wanna keep me away from TV.

I’ve been shooting the last couple of promos you see off-site. I haven’t been at AEW TV. AEW management is responsible for that.

Shout out Tony Khan, thank you for having me doing some ambassador work for WBD events, for sending me to the NFL Draft to do the Jacksonville Jaguars fourth-round pick with Roger Goodell and everybody. I appreciate that, but you’re keeping me away from doing my freaking job, and that’s getting in the ring and hurting people.

The longer I’m away from the ring, the longer I’m away from championship gold, and you are keeping me away from doing what I do best, and that’s hurting people. And that’s why they’re banning me from AEW Dynamite because they’re afraid of what I’m going to do to Bandido. They’re afraid of what I’m gonna do to the rest of the people on the staff in the locker room of All Elite.

It’s going all the way back to what I did to Kenny Omega earlier this year. I’m a danger to AEW Dynamite, and now AEW Dynamite is gonna be keeping me away until further notice.

They’re gonna play games with my career, but like I said, I want power, and I want it all.”

In a separate recent interview with the Bootleg Kev podcast, Strickland gave his thoughts about Darby Allin winning the AEW World Championship and his current reign as champion.

“I feel like there could’ve been more done for Darby for that moment, me personally. I feel like it anchored Darby a little too much because we’re also watching MJF go 46 minutes in a Texas Deathmatch. We’re also watching him go 38 minutes with Kenny Omega. I’m not saying Darby’s not qualified to compete with that, but you’ve got to make Darby qualified to compete like that. I feel like they didn’t do him a favor with that. But, Darby is so talented that now his run is making up for that …

I don’t think people care about his hair like that, but whatever. Once again, I think Darby’s just so undeniably talented, he can make everything feel more important. He just killed it with Kevin Knight, now he’s about to go against PAC. Then Wednesday, possibly against Okada. So like, who is setting up their schedules to go like that on TV? He’s just so undeniably talented that you can’t — it’s undeniable.”

In another separate interview with Real 92.3 LA’s The Cruz Show, Strickland also gave his thoughts about his praise of Allin for climbing Mount Everest and reaching the summit.

“I’m a fan of Darby Allin, you know, for climbing Mount Everest. I would never do that. Never, bro. I would never think of trying that. First of all, you’re going to die if you do that. He said he literally walked past bodies on the trail up there.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about wrestlers have been signing major contracts too early into their wrestling careers and his belief that it is killing their development growth.

“Wrestling now is a different world than when I was coming up. I still had to get DVDs and shop my stuff- send emails to promoters and all that, now it’s like you can go viral and be on TV or getting a contract just from going viral. I think everybody’s getting contracts before they master their craft first, and that’s killing their growth. Before you get the audience, the likes, the clicks, the retweets… you’ve got to grind it out first. You’ve got to hone in on your craft first. You’ve got to suffer. Because as quick as you get it is as quick as you’ll lose it if you’re not good enough and experienced enough to keep carrying it. So master the craft first.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about celebrities and influencers wanting to wrestle and how there is a ‘time and a place’ for it in pro wrestling.

“There’s a time and a place for it for sure. There’s a time and a place for it. Once again, it always comes back to the connection to the fan base. How much have you connected with the fan base to warrant your level of involvement said space in the wrestling. That’s all I was going to tell you. You always got to listen to the fan base. Like they’re going to tell you like what they’re receiving. Well, it’s like, they’re like, they’re like children. They cry when they don’t- they’re getting something. Or they’re going to cry when they want something and then you feed it to them. They’re going to be like, ‘Oh, that satisfied me.’ You answer what I was. It’s the same, same way. They’re going to tell you when something’s like, they don’t like it or it’s not- they’re not digesting it well.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4