Swerve Strickland Reflects On Relationship With Bray Wyatt, Having JoJo Sing At AEW All In

Swerve Strickland has paid homage to Bray Wyatt during his AEW run, most notably with gear that includes nods to Wyatt.

At AEW All In, JoJo Offerman, Wyatt’s widow, sang “Ain’t Nobody” ahead of Swerve’s entrance.

Speaking to Wrestling Figure News, Swerve discussed his relationship with Bray before he passed in 2023.

“To me, Bray Wyatt changed wrestling television, and I don’t think it’s going to be realized for some more time just how impactful he was. ‘This is so unique and different and much more captivating than people understood and realized.’ Even for me, I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was until I got put in the position to have to make interesting television. I took so much nuance from what he was doing and put my spin on it because he was meta-physical and very fourth-wall breaking and speaking to the people. He was leaving nuggets here and there and trinkets like ‘this represented his past, this was depression, this meant anxiety,’ all the puppets meant different things and past moments of his life. It was so cool and I wanted to take pieces of that, and even if I could get 10% of that creativity, I’m going to try and make it my own thing.

“When he passed, it was painful for me because I was with him in the locker room. Not for years, but I was with him when The Fiend was really taking off. When I was getting on 205 Live and on the road, he was the guy giving me hugs, and he would bust my balls because I was wearing pinstripes on my boxers. ‘You’re not going out there and wearing that, are you? I’m just playing, you can do what you want.’ He would do things like that. I’d be at the urinal and he’d be in full Fiend gear right next to me with the mask on and look over, ‘Sup, man?’ Just little things that he would do. He had a big impression on me in the short time I got to interact with him. I wanted to pay that forward to him. Having JoJo come out this year at All In and do another tribute with the fireflies on the titantron and have her sing Ain’t Nobody. Just mix those little trinkets, nuggets, and pieces of storytelling for her and show more appreciation to the family.”

“Ain’t Nobody” by Shaka Khan was the theme Swerve used on the independents before signing with WWE and then AEW.

Swerve’s gear that paid tribute to Wyatt is being made into an action figure that will be available for purchase.

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