Swerve Strickland did an interview with O’Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson on No Contest Wrestling.
During it, he reflected on the moment he thought he earned AEW CEO Tony Khan’s trust.
“If I had to guess one, a lot of people like to pinpoint one area, but I would say the battle royal at Double or Nothing. If it doesn’t come down to me and Orange Cassidy, I don’t spark the thing with Tony of being like, ‘He made this amazing. Let’s do it again.’ I don’t spark that idea in Tony Khan’s mind.”
“Through the office, from talks I heard, it was me and Tanahashi on Collision. It was going into Forbidden Door. He was about to do the High Fly Flow, and he slips off. I run up and start fighting him up there. He knocks me off and gives me the High Fly Flow and wins. That was the moment Tony was like, ‘I can trust him in anything.’ I can trust him with anybody and anything. That might be what saved the New Japan relationship with AEW. He became President soon after that. He gets hurt, that goes away. After that, I started wrestling veterans. RVD, Jeff Hardy, Billy Gunn, Sting. ‘Swerve can make it work.’ Bring on the task, please.”