AEW Star "Didn't Even Answer" Phone Call To Return To WWE
This AEW favourite had zero interest in returning to WWE.
Set to face Adam Page on tonight's AEW Dynamite for a shot at Samoa Joe's AEW World Title at Revolution next month, Swerve Strickland has now revealed that he "didn't even answer" when the call came for a potential WWE return.
As picked up on by Fightful, an appearance on the Smooth Vega podcast saw the topic of Hit Row's B-Fab, Top Dolla, and Ashante 'Thee' Adonis WWE return come up. While discussing how the group struggled without Swerve's involvement, Strickland discussed how he had and has more experience than those three and noted how he himself received a call to head back to WWE.
On that matter, the Mogul Embassy man detailed:
"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 monetise 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 organisation, 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 manoeuvre 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'."
To clarify, Swerve Strickland doesn't mention when that WWE call came. Along with Top Dolla and Ashante, Swerve was released by WWE in November 2021 - B-Fab having been released a couple of weeks earlier - with Strickland signing with AEW and debuting at Revolution 2022.
The Swerve-less WWE return of Hit Row didn't last long, re-debuting on an August 2022 episode of SmackDown, but immediately falling flat and receiving barely any reaction from fans. Top Dolla was released in September 2023, B-Fab has recently aligned with Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits, and Ashante 'Thee' Adonis was seen chatting to SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis a few weeks back ahead of what appears to be a singles run for him.