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Swerve Strickland discusses becoming AEW’s first African-American world champion.
At AEW Dynasty. Swerve Strickland defeated Samoa Joe to win the AEW World Championship. In doing so, he became the company’s first African-American world champion.
At the AEW Dynasty post-show media scrum, Swerve Strickland commented on winning the title.
“First thing to say, my champion is black. Tons of hard work went into this. Nothing was guaranteed at all. Nothing was handed out to me. I had to do a lot of inner searching to figure out what I needed to improve and have a lot of humility to be honest with myself and say, ‘You’re not great here, you’re not the best at here,’ and figure it out and just work at it, no excuses because in my culture, where I come from, we’re not awarded excuses.
“Excuses get us nowhere or killed, and I’m gonna stay alive. I’m gonna keep pushing. I have so many things to fight for, so many people to fight for, and that’s what drives me every day. I get up early, I stay late, I make the extra drives, and I stay in the weight room, I stay discipline, I do the things that a lot of other people don’t want to do. Get on the plane two days earlier than I gotta be there because that’s what required in this. I want that to be the standard for being a champion. We’re not rewarded rest.”
Swerve Strickland On Being The Face Of AEW
Swerve Strickland continued by describing how his spot in the main event title match of consecutive pay-per-views was special. He stated that he was proud to be the face of the franchise because AEW was building a dynasty.
“We gotta be wrestlers because where AEW is and where we’re going, I want the fans to see how hard we’re working,” Swerve Strickland said. “I want the people who aren’t fans to see how hard we’re working to try to join us and be fans and join this company. This is special. This was two back-to-back amazing pay-per-views, Revolution and Dynasty tonight, and I was back-to-back, championship matches in both of them.
“That’s never been done in this company as an African-American man. I don’t think it’s been done in any company this big. We’re doing something special here and I’m just proud to be the face of the franchise because this is a dynasty we’re building.”
RELATED: AEW Dynasty Results (4/21/24): Samoa Joe vs. Swerve Strickland, FTR vs. Young Bucks
