Swerve Strickland: If I Had The Pen, Oba Femi Would’ve Won The WWE World Title In His Debut

Swerve Strickland says he’d have booked Oba Femi to immediately win the world title.

Having wrestled Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event in December, Oba Femi officially arrived on the WWE main roster in the 2026 Royal Rumble. His first WrestleMania match saw put down ‘The Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar in just under five minutes, and many now have ‘The Ruler’ down as a future world champion. However, if one AEW star had his say, Oba would’ve already reached the top of the mountain.

Speaking on The Bootleg Kev Podcast, Swerve Strickland recalled meeting Oba Femi at the gym, revealing that he told the WWE star he’d have won the world title in his debut if he had the pen.

“I met Oba [Femi] at the gym and I said, ‘If I had the pen, your debut would be winning that belt.’ Put him in main events. Perception is everything. People will buy it, but they got to see it.”

-Swerve Strickland

Coming out of WrestleMania 42, Oba Femi began hosting open challenges on Monday Night RAW. The first challenger to emerge was Otis, who the Nigerian put away in under two minutes. Then, on this past week’s show, Femi defeated both members of Los Garza in a handicap match.

As for Swerve Strickland, the 35-year-old is set to battle Bandido in the first round of the 2026 Owen Hart Tournament at Double Or Nothing. As of writing, the former AEW World Champion hasn’t competed since his loss to Kenny Omega at the end of March.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Oba Femi as soon as we hear more.

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