Swerve Strickland on How Kofi Inspired His Journey To Becoming AEW World Champion, Wembley Main Event, & Other Achievements In His AEW Career

A recent episode of the Rich Latta Pro Wrestling podcast featured AEW World Trios Champion Swerve Strickland as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Strickland’s thoughts about how The New Level’s Kofi was the inspiration behind several of his achievements in his AEW career.

“I’m aware. And if they’re hating it, they’re not watching wrestling for the right reasons. You know what I mean? And I already see a lot of it is like, this is a celebratory thing. This is a positive thing from positive people that have a positive record, that made positive impressions on generations of kids in pro wrestling.

You know, like, [Kofi] is like one of the true staples of the next generation of making guys like me, of making guys like a Kevin Knight, of making guys like a Lio Rush, of making guys like — I can go on and on and on and on down this roster. The Rascals themselves, you know what I mean?

Like, for me to stand side by side with him, because watching his moment back at WrestleMania helped me inspire to get to a Wembley Stadium main event as a world champion. You know, that’s not possible without his inspiration and energy.

And now, like, coming together, it’s like a cultural thing. It’s for the generations. It’s for all the guys that look like them in the 2010s, for guys that look like us in 2020 and going forward. You know what I mean?

And it’s a true — it’s an honor for me still to even be side by side with them guys. That entrance meant the most to me, more than anything else. Like, and I’ve had a lot of great things in my career, but that entrance right there meant so much to me because it meant so much to them.

And I don’t think Kofi will truly understand what that means inside. Even Creed being side by side, him changing the game with pop culture and video games and, like, him being an all-time finesser of getting the Fed to use Austin Creed on their stuff for 10 years. So when he’s Austin Creed today, it really ain’t no change.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com