Swerve Strickland has revealed the role Shawn Michaels played in his current success.
The former AEW Champion recently appeared on Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM. He talked about things such as negative reactions to his high-paying contract and more.
During the interview, he was also asked about the influence HBK was for him. Strickland said that Michaels was a huge influence on him and revealed that they keep in touch even now. The former NXT star then told a story about the time he felt stuck in NXT:
“He was the influence on when I really took off in my WWE NXT era because I was just stuck, hitting this wall over and over again weekly. I was having these conversations with Triple H; I was getting this runaround. I wasn’t really getting anywhere.
Then I got a promotion one day, and I was just not happy about it. I was like ‘I don’t feel like I earned the promotion, I feel like you just paying me to keep me here rather than paying what I’ve earned,’
So I spoke out about it. I was like ‘I want to be learning under Shawn.’ He was like, ‘Well, yada yada yada,’ Matt Bloom was like saying ‘yada yada yada whatever. But his office is over there.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, bet.’ I walked over to Shawn and said, ‘Hey, can we do tape study?'”
‘That’s All I’ve Got To Do?’: Swerve Strickland
Swerve Strickland mentioned that he took the leap because he had nothing to lose. He explained that Michaels approached the whole thing with an open mind and then helped him understand what the office wanted from him:
“I was like, ‘Shawn, can I watch tape with you sometime? Like an hour, something like that.’ He’s like, ‘Give me three matches, email them to me, and I’ll pick one. We can watch it on Tuesday.’ Sure enough, he lived up to his word. We watched a match of me on the Indies from like four years ago. He’s like, ‘I want to see the reason you got here. What’s the reason that we signed you to this contract to be here? I want to watch that.’ So we watched this stuff, and he like, he’s quiet, just watching.
Guys like that, they’re not gonna [go] ‘ooh, hah hah hah’; No, they’re just gonna watch. William Regal was very much like that too. The match was over, and he stopped. He’s like, ‘I know exactly the kind of performer you are now. Now I know who you are, now I know what you can offer.’ Next thing you know, he’s in meetings talking about TV the night before, and he’s texting me, he’s like ‘Okay, they want to see you get a little more aggressive and stuff like that. So bring it next match.’ I’m like, ‘That’s it? That’s all I’ve got to do?’
Next match, beating the hell out of me and Bronson Reed going back and forth. He comes to me in the back, and it’s like a football coach after the match. He’s like smacking my ass and [going], ‘That’s what I’m talking about. There you go.’ So I was like, ‘Yeah, I got that from Shawn.’ Next thing you know, North American Championship match happened. Next thing you know TV, I’m getting the microphone to talk now live. I get to show my personality more.”
The AEW star noted that these chances helped him stand out among other recruits. He started taking more and more risks after that and started getting much more comfortable in front of the camera. It got him ready for the bigger opportunities that came his way and made him the star he is now.
