Rich Swann Names His Favorite Opponents, And Talks The ‘Black Excellence’ Photo With New Day And Sasha Banks

Swanny giving the hot takes.

Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann is making the rounds on the independent wrestling scene and is also being featured on IMPACT Wrestling, Major League Wrestling and has made an appearance for AAA all in 2018. Coming out of his release from WWE, Swann was halfway out the door in regards to retiring from wrestling but soon made the decision to stay in the sport that he has loved since he was a child. 

Julio and Lo of ‘Don’t Try This At Home Radio’ were present at an ICW show in New York on September 22nd and had the opportunity to interview Rich Swann prior to his match. During their conversation Swann listed off some his favorite wrestlers and he named Neville and Teddy Hart as two of his favorites.

“It varies. I probably got… right now, I say Neville for one.” Swann said. “Like all around the country. All around the world, the man, and then, I gotta give it to Teddy Hart. Right now, Teddy Hart is like one of the most electric dudes. You can’t stop him. No matter what anybody says about him. He will put somebody down in a heartbeat no pun intended.”

Another topic that came up during the interview was the ‘Black Excellence’ photo that was posted on Twitter by Big E in 2016. At the time there were multiple African-American champions in WWE – those being Sasha Banks, The New Day and Rich Swann. The caption of the photo drew both positive and negative reactions and Swann reflected on the tweet and stated that it blew up far more than he expected it to.

“Man, like Kofi, Xavier Woods and all [of us] were like, ‘Man, look at this. Look at this’, and then we all just took that picture and we all had the belts and it was dope man, and you know, I don’t think we all thought it was gonna blow up the way it did, but that picture blew up.” Swann said.

For the majority of Swann’s time in WWE he was labeled as a cruiserweight and labels of divisions exists in many other promotions and companies such as New Japan Pro Wrestling where there is a separation between Junior Heavyweights and Heavyweights. Swann offered his opinion on weight classes in wrestling and stated that he does not have a problem with it because there have been so many wrestlers who have broken the stigma of someone belonging to one weight class. 

“You know I feel like… for instance I know people always [say], ‘Don’t compare UFC to [wrestling] because of mixed martial arts’, but look you’ve got your people who are featherweights, you got your people who are cruiserweights, and I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with a branding of a division.” He explained. “Like labeling somebody a cruiserweight or a heavyweight but what makes our business so unique is that if a cruiserweight and a heavyweight get into the ring – styles like Rey Mysterio, Jericho, Juventud, Eddie, Benoit. They were able to jump from that label of, ‘Oh they’re a cruiserweight [to being switched] to a heavyweight… and then if you break out and you get into the mid-card, that makes nothing but you look good and your division look good.”

In July it was announced that Rich Swann inked a deal with IMPACT Wrestling and would be a part of the company for the foreseeable future. Swann has recently established an on-screen “friendship” of sorts with former IMPACT X Division Champion Matt Sydal and for more on that, click here.

If you are going to use the quotes above, please credit ‘DTTAH Radio’ with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.