Swerve Strickland has opened up about his time in WWE.
Speaking on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast, former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland addressed why he is presented differently in AEW compared to WWE. Strickland explained it with a football analogy, which essentially meant that no matter how gifted a talent might be, they can perform to their true potential only if the company allows them to do that.
“I would explain it to somebody like this. It’s like, you can have a talented quarterback drafted number one, if he’s not in an organization that allows him to be a franchise quarterback, he’s not going to play like a franchise quarterback. Your quarterback and your talent on a team is only as good as your organization allows you to be. If they don’t allow you to be as great as you possibly could be, then you’re not. Imagine a lot of these great quarterbacks that came through in franchises, if they had Bill Belichick [they’d be even better].”
Swerve Strickland then compared his run as the leader of Hit Row in WWE to LeBron James losing the NBA Finals against the Mavericks in 2011.
“It takes losing the job to really believe it. I also felt like I was too giving, especially when they handed me Hit Row. I felt like Triple H wanted me to be LeBron in the [Miami] Heat, scoring, not passing the ball. That’s why I don’t think we did as well.
“I think I should have gotten the ball and been the LeBron with the team. Like when he lost it in the finals with the Mavericks, I felt like I should have been like, No, give me the ball. I felt like that was one of those moments. I didn’t take that initiative enough, strongly enough, and have been the franchise guy,” Swerve Strickland said.
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