Swerve Strickland on Him Doubting A WWE-AEW Cross Promotion Event Will Ever Happen In His Lifetime & What He Hopes People Will Remember For His Legacy As A Pro Wrestler And Musician

Billboard held a recent interview with Swerve Strickland. One of the topics discussed included Strickland’s thoughts about if he thinks fans will ever see a cross promotional event between AEW and WWE in his lifetime.

“No. Not in my lifetime at least.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about why he does not think such a cross promotional event would ever happen between the two companies.

“It’s control. It’s all about marketing. It’s like the NFL, WWE has to protect their shield. There’s no way they’d allow any of our wrestlers to look better and be better [than them]. Obi Femi is a world beater. You gotta protect that and make sure he keeps looking good. Gunther, have to protect that. Roman [Reigns], have to protect that. Cody [Rhodes], have to protect, even more so because of AEW. There’s a lot of that happening.

When it gets to the women, then that’s even tougher. Rhea [Ripley], Liv [Morgan], Chelsea [Green] all have to be protected. You wanna see Seth [Rollins] and Ospreay. That’s the generational thing, but who do you protect? Who has the leverage? Us in the locker room, we just wanna have these matches. I’m good friends with Carmelo [Hayes], Jevon [Evans] and Oba. Those are my boys. I love those guys. I don’t care who wins. Double DQs. I don’t care.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about if there was anyone he wanted to go up against in a potential cross promotional event between the two companies.

“I don’t do those anymore. I wanna be the fantasy match. I’m at that stage now.”

Strickland also gave his thoughts about what he hopes people will take away from the path he’s carved as both a pro wrestler and musician.

“Not me being a caricature of hip-hop, and not me being a caricature of a Black wrestler. I’m being me. My success in pro-wrestling is genuinely because of my ability in the ring. It’s not because they’re trying to push an agenda, it’s because I perform at a really, really high level — probably the highest level you could see of a Black wrestler in the history of the game.

You have a lot of guys that truly became household names, like the Mark Henrys, Booker Ts, Ron Simmons and Dwayne[ Johnsons] — but you can rarely ever say they were the best wrestler on that show. They had to compete with Eddie Guerrero, Owen Hart, Bret [Hart], Shawn [Michaels]. Great in-ring technical wrestlers. I feel like I compete at the highest level with everybody. Me and Okada. Me and Kenny [Omega]. Me and [Will] Ospreay. Me and Hangman [Adam Page]. The very, very best I hang with every last one of them. That’s why I’ve always approached hip-hop the same way. I have to be pure and genuinely me as possible and get there because of actual ability rather than just co-signs.”