Swerve Strickland reflects on becoming the first black AEW Men’s World Champion.
At AEW Dynasty 2024, Swerve Strickland capped off his journey to the top by defeating Samoa Joe to win the AEW World Championship. Upon capturing the gold, the star became the first black men’s world champion in company history. Now, the 35-year-old has looked back on his journey and the belief he had along the way.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Strickland discussed maintaining the belief that he’d make it to the world championship, and how fan momentum helped him get to the big moment.
“I wasn’t sure, but that’s something I was just putting in the universe because I felt the momentum that I was gaining at the time. I was like, it has to be some point soon, has to be. I was never sure. I was never reassured. It wasn’t even written in my contract that I had to be World Champion by X amount of time. I didn’t have any of those specialties, I didn’t have any of the commitments. I didn’t have any promises. It was just like, that’s something I have to believe. And if I believe it, the fans will believe it. And if the fans believe it, that’s what gets you to those championship moments.”
-Swerve Strickland
Strickland most recently challenged for the AEW World Championship at 2025’s Dynasty event. Unfortunately for the former champion, he wasn’t able to recapture the title back in April, being cost the win by The Young Bucks, but, alongside Will Ospreay, he’d go on to defeat Matthew and Nicholas Jackson at All In: Texas to strip them of their EVP titles.
Now one of AEW’s major names, Swerve also spoke during the interview about how his presentation in the company allowed him to shine more than when he was in WWE. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Swerve Strickland as soon as we hear more.
