Swerve Strickland: I Can Never Replace Big E, But We Can Do Something New That Moves Forward Instead Of Looking Backwards

Swerve Strickland comments on his alliance with New Level.

Strickland surprised fans around the world when he formed a trio with Austin Creed and Kofi at AEW All In. The surprise continued when the team kicked off the show’s main card by winning the AEW World Trios Championships.

Speaking with Black Couch Booking for a new interview, Swerve recalled learning about New Level’s contract situation with WWE and how the situation didn’t feel real. Around the same time, Strickland started coming up with ideas after Tony Khan told him about his upcoming direction.

“When I first heard about the news of their contract situation, it was a shock to me. I was like, ‘Really?’ It didn’t feel real. It didn’t feel believable at the time. It just was like, ‘Man, okay.’ I knew it was something that’s a possibility, it was just floating in the clouds at the time. I knew coming back after the main event with me and Ospreay for the Owen, it was like, ‘Okay, I need a momentum shift right here.’ It was a fact that Tony Khan, he knew he was going to place me in trios. That’s where he wanted me. I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ I have a story with Hangman and Brodido, those were my Owen tournament opponents. So that story just sat there sitting in the cell. You had The Demand just losing the Trios titles to these guys. I was like, ‘If I’m going to go into this, it has to be new. It has to be fresh. It has to be a moment with the guys that hasn’t been here before.’”

When it came to thinking about his new partners, Swerve took some comments from Ricochet into consideration.

“Like with Ricochet talking about there aren’t too many guys in the locker room that like me, they feel just as much hatred towards me as the rest of the guys and the people that I have these feuds with over the last couple of years. So, it can’t be anybody from the locker room. I have to go through outsourcing to get some new teammates. But it has to be something that you look at it like something you didn’t know you wanted, but now that you see it, it’s like man, how did we not see this? That’s it. [We wanted to] shake the doubt of the people that already [were] going to have negativity towards it like, ‘Man, it’s not Big E.’ Shoutout Big E, I can never replace a Big E. But, we can do something new that moves forward instead of looking backwards. That’s why New Level, song with Ferg and Future on the track, all these things just hit at the right time at the right place with the right people to put a shockwave into the energy of the wrestling world all at one encapsulating time. I was like, that’s the only way I could do something like that. These are the guys to do it with.”

New Level and Swerve Strickland will face The Rascalz on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite. Check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.

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