Swerve Strickland on the Evolution of His Persona in AEW, Showing Different Sides to His Character

– During a recent interview with The Root, AEW star and former tag champion Swerve Strickland discussed his meticulous character work in wrestling and more. Below are some highlights:

Swerve Strickland on how he likes to play his character in wrestling: “I always survey the playing field of my character, other people’s characters, other people’s motivations, my motivation and the situation in the scenario I’m in. Then that’s where I really get to have a lot of fun and manipulate and play with certain things. I think that’s why people really dig a lot of my work in the ring as far as my persona, because I’m just taking and improvising with what I’m giving. I shift on what the crowd’s feeling.”

On taking inspiration from Daniel Day Lewis: “I always base my performances on actors who have really strong facial features…and I kind of take scenes and I recreate them in the ring. I’m a big Daniel Day Lewis fan, so I use a lot of his facials, his voice inflections, his presence on camera, I try to manipulate a lot of those same things and make it my own.”

On showing a different side to his character when he attacked Billy Gunn in October: “It showed a different side of me…also it showed that I can be a dangerous person. There has to be a sense of danger. I showed the world that I can perform. Now I need to show the world that I’m actually a dangerous individual. Every time you step in the ring with me, or get around me, whether it’s a backstage promo, whether I’m by myself talking to the camera, there’s a sense there’s a fuse, and it’s really, really short. And there’s consequences to igniting that fuse.”

On last week’s AEW Dynamite, Swerve Strickland turned on Keith Lee and formed a new faction, Mogul Affiliates.