AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland pinpoints two legends that inspired him to become a professional wrestler.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Swerve Strickland recently sat down with James Williams. When asked who his biggest influences were that inspired him to become a professional wrestler, Strickland pointed to WWE’s Rey Mysterio and AEW’s Adam Copeland.
“I would say I was a Rey Mysterio fan and I was a big Adam Copeland fan. So those who are probably my two biggest inspirations ever,” Swerve Strickland said. “They felt larger than life to me, and Rey always felt like a comic book character popping out of the comic being a real person. Like, oh man, I can actually go meet this person. If I’m good enough to train and go up in the wrestling world, I could wrestle this person. I could face my Spider-Man in a sense.
Swerve Strickland explains why he gravitated toward Adam Copeland after he started training
“That always inspired me. And then his movements was always insane to me, and his colorful outfits, his entrance, that was just all magic to me. And then, when I started training and becoming a pro wrestler and stuff, I started studying, and I kind of gravitated toward Adam Copeland a lot more.
“I was like, okay, I feel my height, my size, if I was to look like a wrestler, I would look like Adam Copeland. So I feel like those are my two biggest inspirations, and what inspired me to get into it was honestly video gaming and wrestling and combining the two.”
READ MORE: Swerve Strickland Considers Adam Copeland A ‘Mentor, Through And Through’
What do you make of Swerve Strickland’s overall comments? Are you surprised that Mysterio and Copeland had such an influence on Strickland’s career? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit James Williams with a link to this article for the transcription.
