Swerve Strickland: I Didn’t Expect Wrestling To Be A Career Choice, It Was Just An Art Form That I Wanted To Get Good At

Swerve Strickland discusses how he became a pro-wrestler.

At the age of 18, Swerve Strickland made his wrestling debut. Over the years, he’s worked in numerous promotions under different ring names. Despite starting at a young age, he never planned for wrestling to be his career.

During his recent appearance on the Kings of the Ring podcast, Swerve discussed how he got started in wrestling. He says wrestling was never a career he wanted to pursue. It was his passion that he wanted to get good at, and things took off from there.

“I didn’t expect it to be a career choice. It was an art form to take on pretty much. It’s just like taking on music. Never really think of it as this is going to be…. [For] some people, it’s like, ‘This is my way out, this is my way to get out of this bad situation.’ A lot of times it’s like that, but for me, it was just something I had a passion for. I always describe to people, especially fans that are coming up to me asking me about pro wrestling, ‘A passion is something that you do that doesn’t always love you back.’ So you chase it, you love it, but it’s not always treating you the best. But you still pursue it because even with all the downfalls, the hits you take, the barriers they put in front of you, something still keeps making you keep chasing and going on that path. That’s what wrestling was for me. It was just an art form that I wanted to get good at, and then it turned into a career in a sense.”

In another interview, Swerve revealed why he decided to bulk before his AEW Full Gear 2025 return. Fans can check his comments here.

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