Swerve Strickland felt like he was being ‘bullshitted around’ at the Performance Center.
Making his televised NXT debut on July 3, 2019, as part of the Breakout Tournament, Swerve Strickland spent two years in WWE before his eventual release in 2021. Seen on many of the company’s brands, Strickland is a former NXT North American Champion and also made appearances on 205 Live before his short-lived call-up to Friday Night SmackDown.
In a interview given to VladTV, Strickland mentioned his frustration at the WWE Performance Center when he found himself being taught arm drags shortly after winning over the fans in a major way during a Cruiserweight Championship match with Drew Gulak.
“The one day I knew I was getting bullshitted around the PC was when I was there for three or four months, and I got called to do 205 Live against Drew Gulak, who had the Cruiserweight Championship. 205 Live is a show that takes place after SmackDown. So after SmackDown, you see the Roman Reigns, you see all those big names. They close off SmackDown, then they do another show for the extra content on the WWE Network at the time. It was three matches, and we were the last one. It was me and Drew Gulak, we went 18 minutes in the ring, straight, for the Cruiserweight Championship. Everybody’s on their feet, going crazy. I have Swerve’s House signs, going after Roman, I have Swerve’s House signs. They’re not chanting, ‘This is awesome.’ They’re chanting, ‘Let’s go Swerve.’ They’re actually rooting for me to win this title. I end up losing to Drew Gulak. Got great praise in the back afterwards. Charlotte [Flair], Bayley, Kofi [Kingston], Samoa Joe, everybody’s giving me crazy praise. I come back to the PC, and they’re trying to teach you arm drags again. I’m like, get the fuck out of here with that [laughs]. They’re trying to tell me how to entertain 400 people in NXT when I just entertained 6,000 in a stadium. I’m like, why are you trying to backtrack me? I already showcased what I can do in front of 6,000. Mind you, that’s the end game to all this. The end game is to get me there, of what this product is. That’s like, you don’t bring the guy from the G League, he drops 30 in the NBA, and come back to practice back at the G League, and it’s like, ‘Let’s put him on the bench. He needs more development.’ I’m like, I just dropped 30 on Giannis. What are we doing? So that was the mindset I had. It was kind of too brash, it was too over-thinking, and there’s where I kind of clashed with Triple H, as far as we didn’t gel. I really gelled with Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels was the one, because he didn’t have the full power, he was just an advocate, and he as a partner to Triple H because he was more hands on with the talent. Out of all the coaches and all the people and the staff there, Triple H still had to go to the main roster and SmackDown and Raw and do a lot of these public appearances. He still had to do the shareholder meetings and all that, so he couldn’t be there every day, but he was there pretty often. Shawn is the only one out of all those coaches that could really teach you how to be a top main event star. That’s the only one there. So I’m like, that’s who I need to get with. Why can’t I get with him?”
-Swerve Strickland
Swerve continued by discussing how hard he pushed to work closely with Shawn Michaels. In the end, Strickland was able to reach ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ just by going to his office.
“I was like, ‘I want to get in Shawn Michaels’ class.’ ‘Well, Shawn, he’s not really doing classes right now. He’s not really holding classes because he’s so busy with the show.’ I was like, ‘Well, can I get a meeting with him.’ He was like, ‘I mean, his office is right over there.’ Bet. Went over there, found Shawn. I was like, ‘Hey Shawn, do you mind if I do tape studies with you?’ He’s like, ‘Absolutely.’ I’m like, it’s that fucking easy? I’ve been here a year and a half, and I could have just walked up to his office? But that’s those things, they don’t give you those curriculums. That’s not part of it. That’s the game. They want that run-around until you earn the ‘sweat equity’ to be able to go over there, to be like, oh, now you’re worthy of talking to Shawn because you put in all this stuff,”
-Swerve Strickland
Elsewhere in the interview, Strickland recalled his experiences when it came to getting released from WWE, discussing how the end of his time with the company saw his group ‘Hit Row’ scolded by Vince McMahon. He also noted how, while in WWE, Roman Reigns gave him strong advice on how to be perceived in the ring.
These days, Swerve is one of the biggest stars in All Elite Wrestling and is a former AEW World Champion.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Swerve Strickland as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
