Tony Khan Explains What He Saw in Swerve Strickland When He Signed With AEW

– During a recent feature with The Athletic, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan spoke on the rise of Swerve Strickland following his AEW debut in March 2022. Below are some highlights:

Tony Khan on Swerve Strickland: “After his first match against Tony Neese on AEW Rampage, Chris Jericho walked back to me and said, ‘This guy is really amazing. Where did you find him?’ I’ve been watching him for years. I wanted to bring him into AEW when we first launched, but he had just been signed by WWE.”

On how Strickland is a wildcard: “Swerve is a wildcard. We saw that Swerve is a breakout star. He won the tag team championship in his first year and went on to have a massive 2023 while being showcased as a singles star. The idea was to showcase Swerve in feature positions with the intent and belief that crowds all over the world would buy into him. I believed he’d become very popular.”

At this weekend’s AEW Revolution event, Swerve Strickland is competing in a Triple Threat Match for the AEW World Championship against champ Samoa Joe and Hangman Page. The event is scheduled for Sunday, March 3. The event will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. It will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.