10 Former WWE Stars Who Have Flourished In AEW
8. Swerve Strickland
After an underwhelming debut with All Elite Wrestling, Swerve Strickland has quietly morphed into one of the best heels on the roster.
His pairing with Keith Lee felt like a lazy, thrown together trope to justify an eventual split and feud, and the name 'Swerve in our Glory' reeked of the same lack of effort. But through both guys' raw charisma and in-ring brilliance, they made it work and shocked the world by taking the AEW Tag Team Championships off division stalwarts, the Young Bucks.
This is, by far, the most exposure Swerve has ever had in a mainstream wrestling promotion, because although he won the NXT North American Championship during his time under Triple H's wing, he was never given a main event run. Forming and heading Hit Row, that group hardly set the world alight, and the act didn't feel main roster ready when it was called up to SmackDown as part of the 2021 draft.
A few weeks later, and all of Hit Gone were gone from the company.
Whilst B-Fab, Top Dolla and Ashanti Thee Adonis have found their way back to the Fed since The Game rose to power, rumours are that a WWE offer was extended to Strickland, who promptly turned it down and reported it to Tony Khan.
Why Strickland would want to leave AEW now, where he is evolving into a major villain, would be anyone's guess?