Bray Wyatt’s spirit was present at AEW Full Gear, according to Swerve Strickland.
Swerve Strickland paid tribute to Wyatt, who passed away on August 24, at AEW Full Gear, as his gear was designed to pay homage to him. At the pay-per-view, Strickland defeated Hangman Page in a brutal Texas Death Match.
In an interview with Sam Roberts on Not Sam Wrestling, Swerve Strickland described how Bray Wyatt influenced him. (H/t Jeremy Lambert of Fightful for the transcription)
“I didn’t know Bray as close as a lot of people like Brodie Lee, there were people influenced by him from his time there, but some people have known him since FCW or NXT and they have that personal connection,” Swerve Strickland said. “To me, I remember when The Fiend was really going, there was a lot of chatter that it wasn’t for them, as a fan. I was like, ‘No, this is brilliant work.’
“I don’t think people really appreciated the brilliance he was bringing to the screen and a lot of risks he was taking, week by week, which is not easy to do. Weekly television on two shows. It wasn’t just Raw or SmackDown, he was doing both shows with his material. Bringing that to the real world. I really appreciated that and I think he was ahead of his time.”
Swerve Strickland On Paying Tribute To Bray Wyatt
Swerve Strickland continued by describing how he wanted to show his appreciation for Wyatt through his gear. He recalled the brief period of time that they got to work together in WWE. Strickland then stated that Wyatt’s spirit powered his match against Page.
“I just wanted to show appreciation that the love and influence wasn’t lost,” he said. “I put that as part of my gear, and I was in the locker room with him during my time at 205 [205 Live], he always gave me hugs. He was awesome. At one point, I had to help him with a Fiend mask. It was COVID and we were all in that box together. There were times I had to help him with that. There were times I would see him in Gorilla coming back when they were testing the red lighting after the show and getting that going.
“I’ve seen a lot of those processes with him. He was always a good brother in the locker room. He was fun, really cool. That was one of those things of, ‘you’ve always influenced me through all of this.’ No matter what, if it was their taste or wasn’t, I’m a horror person, and I was really happy to see a new age of horror brought to the screen in an industry that I love and I was like, ‘Man, that was a revolutionary.’ I wanted to take a little piece of that into what I was doing that night. If anything, I feel like his spirit powered that match.”
Swerve Strickland will face Mark Briscoe on the December 6 episode of AEW Dynamite. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
