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Prior to coming aboard AEW in March 2022, Swerve Strickland spent over two years under the banner of WWE, beginning with a stint in "WWE NXT." There, Strickland worked with the likes of Paul "Triple H" Levesque and then Vice President of Talent Development Shawn Michaels. During a recent interview with "The Breakfast Club," Strickland specifically recalled how a tape-study session with Michaels helped better him as a performer.
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"I was like, Shawn, 'Can I watch tape with you sometime, like an hour?' He's like, 'Give me three matches, email them to me. I'll pick one and we can watch it on Tuesday.' Sure enough, he lived up to his word. We watched a match of me on the indies from like four years ago. He's like, 'I want to see the reason you got here. What's the reason that we signed you to this contract to be here? I want to watch that.' So we watched this stuff; he's quiet just watching, watching. And guys like that, they're not going to [have expressive reactions like] 'Oh! Ah! Ah!' No, they're just going to watch. William Regal is very much like that too."
According to Strickland, these respective matches gave Michaels a better idea of who he was as a performer and what he could offer inside the ring. A short time after that, Michaels emerged from "NXT" executive meetings with some additional advice for Strickland.
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"[Michaels] is texting me. He's like, 'Okay, they want to see you get a little more aggressive and stuff like that, so bring it next match,'" Strickland recalled. From there, Strickland wrestled Bronson Reed on "NXT," and in doing so, earned post-match praise from Michaels. In the months following, Strickland also won the NXT North American Championship and earned more microphone time, the latter of which allowed him to showcase more of his personality while also becoming more comfortable on camera.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

