Swerve Strickland discusses the blood-drinking spot at AEW Full Gear.
At AEW Full Gear, Swerve Strickland defeated Hangman Page in a brutal Texas Death Match. The bout sparked plenty of controversy, particularly with a spot where Page drank Strickland's blood and spit it into the air.
Speaking with TMZ Sports, Strickland was asked about the blood-drinking spot and the reception to it.
“I mean, that’s pretty much why we’re here, having this conversation in the first place. If you’re gonna go all out in a match like that, you have to release all the chains, all the handcuffs, understand that there’s going to be criticism because we’re gonna shake the foundation a little bit. Shoutout to a lot of the forums that are picking up, talking about it, discussing it. We appreciate you, I love you, thank you, for watching, and adding so much noise to the discussion about the match. But in 2023, it’s become really difficult to really catch the attention across all these platforms. People are coming up with five-star matches every pay-per-view. Every pay-per-view, I think there’s a five-star match, guaranteed. This match is put in there to have that. I’m not even a big fan of five stars. I’m just more about the story, and if there’s something memorable about it. If it happens to be five stars, some people perceive it as that, cool. I’m all about the business and television and theatre. I feel like that was one of those moments it was like, that was theater. That was cinematic, like, ‘Oh my god. You have to go out of your way to see this because I can’t even believe it,'" Strickland said.
Strickland then welcomed anyone to complain about the match, as he admitted that the spot was not a good thing. However, he emphasized that it makes people check out the product. Strickland described how AEW was built on pushing boundaries, and that's exactly what he and Page did.
"Whoever has anything to complain about it, feel free. Complain, I implore you. It’s not a good thing to do. I don’t implore anybody to do anything like that. But the fact that it was done, it makes people [go], ‘I don’t believe you. I gotta go see this for myself.’ That’s what that was. We pushed boundaries. That’s what AEW was built on. Pushing boundaries, doing things that other places just couldn’t do, or are not able to do. You’re not able to see that anywhere else. There’s been another product that’s been doing it for so long. They’re excellent at what they do. We gotta find what we’re excellent at what we do. That was the pinnacle of what AEW was like. That’s what we do. We are excellent at what we do," Strickland said.
Strickland then highlighted the buzzworthy moment when Will Ospreay signed with AEW at AEW Full Gear. He stated that the roster is stacked, and Ospreay's signing serves as a reminder that everyone else needs to cement themselves and show the world why they are elite as well.
"Then following [that], having Will Ospreay sign his contract, man, we’re loaded. We’re stacked. There’s no other roster in the world like us. But now, it’s gotta show, it’s like, okay, we got that guy coming in. This is a game-changer of this generation, elite. Now we gotta cement ourselves, why we are the game-changers and we’re elite as well, because guys like Will Ospreay are gonna be here and choose AEW over going anywhere else in the world when the Brink's truck is brought out to him," Strickland said.
Swerve Strickland recently said that people want to see him as a champion. Check out his comments here.
Click here to see what Jim Ross had to say about Strickland's match against Hangman Page at AEW Full Gear.
Strickland will face Jay White on the November 29 episode of AEW Dynamite. Check out the card here. Fightful will have coverage of the show as it airs.
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