Swerve Strickland: When I Got The Phone Call To Go Back To WWE, I Didn’t Even Answer It

Every day, Swerve Strickland is hustling. 

On November 18, 2021, Swerve Strickland was released by WWE. Swerve was part of Hit Row alongside Top Dolla, Ashante “Thee” Adonis, and B-Fab and the group had just been called up to WWE SmackDown. The group also all got released within the same month. 

Swerve would go on to sign with AEW when his 90-day non-compete clause was up while the other three made various independent appearances before returning to WWE in August 2022. 

Appearing the Smooth Vega podcast, Smooth mentioned that Hit Row struggled in WWE without Swerve and said the feeling wasn’t the same. 

“That comes from experience. I had a different experience than those guys had. I’ve known how to build myself from the ground up on the independents. I knew how to hustle, get here, get to there, put on performances and matches, and then go, ‘How do I get that?’ Then monetize that into this and make this into something. Everything, throughout my career, and to this day, I apply; one thing leads to another and to another. That’s kind of how you see those little things in my entrance and my music, my wrestling, my look, the sound, all that was weaving together from going from here to here to hustling. That’s something those guys still need to learn. It’s tough in that organization, WWE, it’s really tough creatively when you don’t have your hands on your creative, and it’s left to the powers that be to maneuver you how they see fit, and that’s not easy for anybody. For me, I was in a place where I knew I needed to be. I needed to be in AEW. When I got the phone call to go back, I didn’t even answer it. It was, ‘Nope,'” he recalled.

Swerve did not say when he got the phone call from WWE to potentially return to the company, but he has been under AEW contract since March 2022. 

Swerve is set to face Hangman Page in a number one contender’s match for the AEW World Title on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite. 

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