Swerve Strickland says WWE reached out to him, but he did not pick up the phone.
WWE released Hit Row in a round of cuts in November 2021. Swerve Strickland went on to sign with AEW, while the rest of Hit Row returned to WWE in August 2022, though Top Dolla was released again in September 2023.
Speaking on the Smooth Vega podcast, Swerve Strickland discussed how Hit Row struggled without him. He noted that he had a different experience, and he found somewhere he needed to be in AEW. Strickland then revealed that he did not answer when WWE called him about potentially returning.
“That comes from experience,” Swerve Strickland said. “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 monetize 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. T
“That’s something those guys still need to learn. It’s tough in that organization, 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 maneuver 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.'”
It is not clear when the phone call happened. Strickland officially signed with AEW in March 2022, and he has been with the company ever since.
Swerve Strickland will face Hangman Page to determine AEW World Champion Samoa Joe’s next challenger on the February 7 episode of AEW Dynamite. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs.
