Hot 97 held a recent interview with Swerve Strickland. One of the topics discussed included Strickland’s thoughts about his belief in “stillness is power” while performing in rap, during his wrestling entrance, or while wrestling matches.
“I found a lot of parallels in a lot of it. Stillness is power, is what I’ve always felt. The less I do, the more I stand there, the more people crave the attention, to want to move. Same thing with hip-hop. Michael Jackson stands on stage for five minutes straight. People are going crazier and crazier and crazier. I’m like, ‘do something! Come on! Do something! See me! Hey! Does he know me? Then boom! They go louder. So stillness is power. So the same thing with wrestling, my entrance and all that or in the ring. The longer I stand still, the more I can control the people, and then if I make… I notice when I move my eyes, the camera tells the story of where like, I want them to shoot. So I’m directing at all times in the ring. I’m directing the people. I’m directing the cameras. I’m directing all that. Same thing with stand-up comedy. Like, stillness is power. Like, people get, like, a little, especially as performers, controlling that quietness. When the quiet goes down, it feels uncomfortable to people. But if you are able to find comfort in the quiet and the comfort in the stillness, that’s where you can control the people and control the atmosphere. So all those things I started watching, I still… started understanding and applying those into the act of like, um, performing in the ring, performing at my entrance, performing on stage and the music, and then like, you know, all of it came very parallel.”
Strickland also gave his thoughts about his inspirations in pro wrestling and how he asks for advice from Adam Copeland to help improve his wrestling career.
“Rey Mysterio is my number one. Always. Uncle Rey is my guy. I would say Copeland, or Edge, then Shawn Michaels are my top three. I was able to learn from all three. I wrestled Rey. Couldn’t wrestle Shawn. Yep, yep. Tape studies with him. Like one-on-ones, like close the door. Boom, it’s me and him locked in. Nobody else. Like one-on-one time. That changed my mindset for wrestling and performing. Copeland, I get to see him every week. I’ll be coming up with something for the match that night, and I’m like, ‘hmm, I’m on the fence with this.’ I go to him and he’ll like, ‘nope, this is the one you should take.’ He always has the best interest on the performer, too, which always feels good to me.”
Strickland also gave his thoughts about his Lights Out Steel Cage match against Hangman Adam Page at AEW All Out 2024 and how him getting powerbombed onto a cinder block was worse than the syringe spot to his mouth.
“That wasn’t as bad as getting powerbombed on the cinder block. That was a full on real cinder block. That was probably the worst thing I’ve ever done. I was like, never again.”
Strickland also gave his thoughts about how he prepares himself for these big spots and what goes through his mind in the moment.
“Nothing! It has to empty. I have to empty my mind because I can’t have any other thoughts. I’m like, do it before I just say no. Do it now. Because there’s a time and window before I come to my realization this is stupid.”
Strickland also gave his thoughts about him wrestling through a torn meniscus injury from 2019 until his surgery in 2025.
“I never had bad injuries. I just had like, I tore my meniscus like 2019. I didn’t get the surgery until 2026. So like, I just wrestled on it for like five years. I was performing. I never stopped. So that was just like something I just dealt with just to like, you know, get all the achievements and stuff. Then I was like, okay, I feel like I can take a break now.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4
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