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Swerve Strickland has openly defended the intense and memorable blood-dripping moment from his AEW Full Gear match. In a conversation with former WWE star Mojo Rawley on TMZ Sports, Strickland emphasized the necessity of such high-impact moments in matches of that caliber.
He explained, āI mean, thatās pretty much why weāre here, having this conversation in the first place. If youāre gonna go all out in a match like that, you have to release all the chains, all the handcuffs, understand that thereās going to be criticism because weāre gonna shake the foundation a little bit. Shoutout to a lot of the forums that are picking up, talking about it, discussing it.ā
Strickland continued, expressing gratitude for the attention and discussion the match has generated: āWe appreciate you, I love you, thank you, for watching, and adding so much noise to the discussion about the match. But in 2023, itās 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 thereās a five-star match, guaranteed. This match is put in there to have that. Iām not even a big fan of five stars.ā
He further elaborated on his focus on storytelling over ratings: āIām just more about the story, and if thereās something memorable about it. If it happens to be five stars, some people perceive it as that, cool. Iām 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, āOh my god. You have to go out of your way to see this because I canāt even believe it.'ā
Discussing his journey and AEW's ethos, Strickland, who previously wrestled in WWE as Isaiah āSwerveā Scott from April 2019 to November 2021, joined AEW in March 2022. He has since become an AEW Tag Team Champion with Keith Lee and formed The Mogul Embassy.
Strickland also spoke about AEW's commitment to pushing the envelope: āWhoever has anything to complain about it, feel free. Complain, I implore you. Itās not a good thing to do. I donāt implore anybody to do anything like that. But the fact that it was done, it makes people [go], āI donāt believe you. I gotta go see this for myself.ā Thatās what that was. We pushed boundaries.ā
He concluded by highlighting AEW's unique approach: āThatās what AEW was built on. Pushing boundaries, doing things that other places just couldnāt do, or are not able to do. Youāre not able to see that anywhere else.ā
āThereās been another product thatās been doing it for so long. Theyāre excellent at what they do. We gotta find what weāre excellent at what we do. That was the pinnacle of what AEW was like. Thatās what we do. We are excellent at what we do.ā
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