"Signing With AEW Should Be Like Signing With The Lakers" - Swerve Strickland (AEW News)

Swerve Strickland is keeping standards high in AEW.

by Andrew Pollard
Swerve Strickland
AEW

For those former WWE talents who think they've automatically got an AEW gig in their future, Swerve Strickland has other ideas.

Speaking on the Battleground Podcast (via Fightful), the former AEW World Champion backed up recent comments made by Will Ospreay, pointing out how much hard work it should take to get to AEW, to stay with AEW, and to make an impact in AEW - comparing signing with Tony Khan's promotion to being signed by the Los Angeles Lakers.

As Swerve put it:

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"You can’t just be here in All Elite Wrestling just to be here. [Strickland and Ospreay] always had that same respect. We both push the bar and raise it to certain lengths that people second-guess can they come to All Elite Wrestling, people second-guess can they just sign a contract and make an impact in All Elite Wrestling. It shouldn’t be like that. It should be like signing with the Lakers. [You can’t just get to] the Lakers and just expect to be starting five and run the floor and get playing time. No, you have to work, you have to be one of the best out there. Then you gotta wonder can you come to the Lakers, and then, you gotta work that much harder to stay on the team. That’s what we wanna always keep that standard in All Elite Wrestling.”

The Lakers are one of the most successful NBA teams in history, winning an impressive 17 championships and having featured some of the greatest names the sport has ever seen, such as LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain.

By comparing AEW to the Lakers, Swerve Strickland is making the point that prospective AEW signees need to be top-tier talents or be willing to put in the work to make themselves top-tier talents. It's not a case of just because somebody has left WWE, they automatically get an offer to come to AEW.

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Swerve was speaking ahead of All In Texas, which takes place on Saturday 12 July.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.