Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Battle Brown Boy from the Parts UnknownStudios Into Battle Crowd, Battle Crown,
The Battle Round, Battle the BattleBrown. Welcome to the Battleground Podcast,
your place for all things pro wrestling, Little Brown, The Battle Round,
(00:24):
the Battle Round now making their wayto the microphone and Sick give it up
for your hosts, Battle Crowd.Yeah, what's up you guys. Welcome
back to Into iHeartRadio's official wrestling podcast, The Battleground Podcasting. This weekend is
a very very big weekend for AliliWrestling. It's a homecoming for our guest
(00:47):
today, Swerve Strickland joins this.Swerve, how you doing, Serve?
What's going on? Yo? Imean walking around the battle right now?
It's perfect weather there, of courseit's it's a homecoming from you from being
from Tacoma where at Wrestle Dream thisSunday out of Seattle. First things first,
let me ask you how's your handafter the pin attack from Hangman.
(01:11):
I can't show it on camera rightnow. It's too gruesome, so I'm
just gonna leave it at bad.You'll see. I'm probably gonna have it
wrapped up this weekend. Yeah.Yeah, I think there's some some payback
coming for I see it. Isee it as a bad honor because I'm
an agitator and he got exactly whatI wanted out of the man. So
that was very uncharacteristic of him too. So making him break, that's that's
(01:34):
a good psychological tool. That's good. Yeah, he wonted motivation, he
found it. Absolutely, he's gonnahave the flight of his life comes Sunday
at Wrestle Dream. And you know, this is something that's that's been great
for the business. Twenty twenty threehas been a monster year for wrestling as
a whole. Do you see thisyear as one of the biggest of your
(01:55):
career? Oh? For sure,absolutely, just just the amount of I
would say this year for a whas had a lot of pressure on us,
for sure, just like the fourthyear of the very young company that's
still striving doing very great things.And right now, especially with Wrestle Dream,
(02:17):
a very brand new pay per viewthat's being brought to the brough,
brought to the forefront of the companyand me being one of the marquee matches
to sell it at this point followingAll In and All Out is pretty big
and Grand Slam on top of that, So right now, this is this
spot is really tough for us,But man, are the fans have been
(02:38):
supporting really big, you know,and there's a lot of interest in this,
like not too long ago, thenTony Kahn just come out and say,
this is the new era of aW I truly believe that. I
truly believe we're seeing a whole newregime of like different waves of talent kind
of fluctuating into a really big spot. You Like, you got your Chris
(03:00):
stat Landers and Julia Harts right nowreally coming into their own getting that opportunity
on prime time television and a payper view title match situations. You know,
you got Jay White like just jumpingahead as far as like one of
the top guys of the company andstuff like that. You're seeing a lot
(03:22):
more of the guys that have beenon top of going into the Multiman's a
little bit more now. You're seeingJericho in that situation. Don Callis is
becoming a way more of an importanceon the show. Christ Christian with the
resurgence of a lifetime man like You'reyou're just seeing so many like myself and
(03:43):
the Mogul embassy not not making aresurgence going viral. The way he does.
You know that you're seeing this alot of guys are like really hungry
and grasping for those spots, andwe're getting them, which doesn't always happen
in a wrestling business. It's veryunforgiving and it's a lot of front like
loopholes to jump through. You're seeinga lot of these guys get their opportunities
(04:05):
and not handed to them, butthey're earning them and you're going to see
more. You know, there's alot to look forward to. And I
don't want to jump to twenty twentyfour just yet because we still got a
lot of meat left on the bonewith twenty twenty three. But right now
it's very exciting, very important timefor the company, you know what I
mean. I mean the last twomonths have been incredible for wrestling. I
(04:27):
mean, like I mean, Iwas weird talking before we got on.
I haven't even started Heels Season twobecause I'm like, I have so much
aw going on right now, Ican't focus on anything. But but speaking
speaking of you know recently, youknow all in Wimbley, we were not
too far away from that larger showin history. You were in one of
the most buzzed about matches. Youand Christian took on Derby and Staying coffin
(04:49):
match. What was the highlight ofthat match for you? And you know,
what was it like being in aring with Staying and Christian. Honestly,
I highlight me personally as my theyoung wrestling fan of me came out
of the match a little bit wasbeing Christian hitting double spears Darby early in
(05:10):
the match. I was like,this just happened. It happened that kind
of moment because I grew up onlike the freaking triangle ladder matches, the
you know, the table tlcs.I grew up watching that and that's kind
of what made me go and seeingthe way I did early on and you
know, my wrestling career and stufflike that. But that was probably with
the not the moment that everybody talkedabout as much in that match, but
(05:35):
for me, that was so symbolicfor me and my childhood inner child was
just screaming inside after that, andthen I went back into just serious mode.
All Right, I'm here to hereto win this match, you know,
right, I mean we are.I mean, going back looking at
that match, that that was afun match for sure. I mean,
(05:57):
obviously it didn't happen the outcome andhappened the way that we were hoping it
for you to win that night.But you gotta think when you're sitting there
in front of eighty thousand people,like the biggest wrestling show to dates,
like do Nurse kick in for alittle bit for Swerve Strickland during that match,
or do you just think of itas just it's this is another match
(06:18):
just in a much bigger grand schemeof face. I look at it as
I know how to ride a bike, now I just got to ride a
bike in front of eighty thousand people. That's why I gotta kind of like
situated, like I know what I'mdoing. I've done this thousands of times
in front of like fifteen people.I've done it in front of fifteen hundred
(06:40):
people. No, I've done itin front of twenty thousand people. Never
done in front of eighty thousand people. But it's probably the same as doing
it in front of fifteen fifteen people. So but afterwards, after it was
all setting done, the job wasdone, we're off air, were off
camera. You know, I'm inthe back. I can honestly be like,
yeah, okay, now I canfeel it. But before that,
(07:05):
I was just a prize fighter walkinto the ring ready for the battle.
Yeah, it's okay again, goingback to it, It's probably been one
of my favorite shows so far thisyear that I look. So, you
know, you continue to get someof the loudest pops whenever AGW travels,
and then of course now nan Igets pops as well as dance moves.
(07:28):
What do these insane reactions say aboutyour relationship to the audience. I feel
like they are growing with me,and I feel like they're understanding me more
too. They're understanding why I'm there, what my purpose is, and but
also they're at the edge of theirseats to know what I'm going to do.
Right, Yeah, I mean whatI'm about to say. They don't
(07:53):
know how I'm about to go about. What's like, they don't They just
don't know. They don't. Anythingcan come about, So I can be
happy, go lucky, or Icould it could turn really really bad and
somebody gets a center block, orsomebody gets this, or you can go
I have such like great range ofnot just emotion but probability with this character
(08:15):
and with Nana there and the mobileEmbassy is always lurking somewhere and stuff like
that, you know, And Ithink that's what's good about a viewer.
There's always it's always kind of liketense. It's always a suspense of like
we like, no, that's notgonna happen, but it could. Yeah,
right, you know, And Ithink that's where the audience is understanding
(08:37):
about anymore. And I think lastnight, even like when Nana was coming
down and you just did that likethat alone, just you know, you
turned up to eat a little bit, like that's what they wanted, and
you're like, nope, this ismy time. Like that's a perfect example
exactly. Yeah, like you don'tknow, yeah, yeah, not right
now. So you know, talkingabout when of your accolades with Keith Lee
(09:01):
swerving our glory, capture the worldtag team titles, they had a very
can they exist relationship going on inmost situations, there's a blowoff match with
that, and we haven't really gottenthat yet. Are you still looking over
your shoulder for Keith Lee and wouldyou entertain kind of a one on one
match down road with him to kindof settle all that. I'm still looking
(09:22):
for Keith Lee. Where has hebeen? So, you know, that's
probably the best question. I'll settle. I'll settle any score anywhere it'll matter
to me. Yeah. Like it'salmost like those fighters in boxing fights,
so like you'll just make the fight. Make the fight. Oh, I
mean, hey, I'm not theI'm not the booker, I'm not the
(09:43):
I'm not the guy like controlling themoney on this whole thing. Set the
fight up. I'll be there.Of course I might lose the way in,
but I'll be there for the fight. You're not gonna go down without
you know, without a fight forsure, speaking fight, it's I mean,
this Sunday, it's gonna be insane. We've got our very first edition
of Wrestle Dream coming live from yourhome city, your hometown, Seattle,
(10:09):
and it's on pay per view.Let me ask you this, how important
is this match against Hangman in yourhometown? And is this a have to
win situation for you? I feellike I look at every matches have to
win, but this is more ofa how can I not win situation for
me. You know, I've elevatedin such a way that you know it's
(10:35):
showing on statistics right at this point. You know, no matter how high
you go, there's always going tobe a city. People are always gonna
try to raise the ceiling for younot to break through. But my still
is my floor at this point.And Hangman is like the perfect person that
I needed for that, And I'malso the perfect person that Hangman needed to
(11:01):
get back in the that that thatthat visual of the for the fans,
it's like, oh, Man,like he's this is something I've never seen
from Hangman. And all the years, all the matches, all the promos,
all the great stories he's been telling, this is still something new for
him. And I think that's thebeauty of what we're both providing each other.
Yeah, I feel like that's theinterest of the match itself. That's
(11:24):
what's selling it. Like once again, you don't know what it's going to
happen, you don't know which wayit's going to turn, you don't know
what's going to come out. Andnow we've seen what is capable of Hangman.
What's I pulled out of him onWednesday night. Now it's like,
Okay, what is he is?That what he's going to have to try
to keep that going into Russell Dream, I've already had that. I don't
(11:45):
need that. Yeah, and likethis, this arena is way more of
an enemy than I could ever betoo. Right, So you're essentially you're
looking for the dog and hangman,right, Yeah for sure, Yeah gotcha.
So one of the promo mentions lastnight, you'd mentioned becoming, uh,
you know, the first African Americana w World heavyweight Champion. There's
(12:09):
a large obviously a large fan basethat supports that. What would it mean
to you to become the first AfricanAmerican AW world champ? And what would
you bring to the table that maybethe current champ, MJFF doesn't. That's
already a tough tough sell in itas it is. I can't bring anything
more than MJF because MJF is doingtop tier work. But what I can
(12:31):
do is bring something different. Ican bring something unique that MJF can't bring.
It's not necessarily more, but it'sunique in a different lane, you
know what I mean. I whatI have been doing, Like as far
as like the outside media has alreadybeen untapped in any part of pro wrestling.
I've there's never been any pro wrestlerinside Double XL magazine As an artist
(12:54):
himself, you know, I oneof the few wrestlers. That's like red
carpeted the Grammys. I'm one ofa few wrestlers that's actually worked with Grammy
winning artists and producers and stuff,you know, like bringing Rick Ross,
like doing all these other things,all these like I was this past weekend,
I was in a Revote World withDiddy, then going the following like
(13:18):
a couple of days later, beingin the office with Coach Prime at Colorado.
You know, like that's a lotof things I'm doing without a title.
Imagine you give me more power.I'm imagine you give me more of
a trophy that I can you knowhow much more I can really rein it?
You know this is already limited sources. Give me the real Now you're
gonna give me the apple of Eden? How can I walk through this world
(13:41):
with that? That's what the awWorld Championship means to me as an African
American male, And that's that's almostThat's also very scary for a lot of
people too. It's a lot ofthere's a lot of fear in that because
there hasn't been one yet. Youknow, being in the first is always
lot of there's a lot more judgment, there's a lot more fear. There's
(14:03):
a lot more like waiting for youto fail as well. And that's and
I feel like that's the that's whenI bring the uniqueness too, holding that
championship because I know I won't fail. M Right, that's a good answer,
arrogant answer, because I mean youtalk about, like you said,
(14:24):
there's a lot of pressure on you. I was there the night that Ron
Killings our Truth won the NWA WorldHeavyweight Championship. Very special moment that doesn't
get talked about enough in my opinion, and like I was there and we've
had him on the show talking aboutthat moment, and he was like when
they first told him backstage, heyyou're going over, You're you're the champ
tonight, and he thought they werejoking. They're like, you are the
(14:48):
first African American NWA World Heavyweight Championout of all the years, and he's
like, that is one of thegreatest accomplishments I've ever had this business.
Yep. And that's just just forthat accomplishment alone in the Hall of Fame
career. Then he went on todo twenty more years after that, Yeah,
yeahs and feuded with Cina, Likeyou know, that's like that.
(15:09):
I don't think he gets talked aboutenough in that right, in that world
right, And he's multi festa too. He does music, he can do
comedy, he can do physical likehe's he's a multi tool he's a five
tool player. Oh you know player, absolutely. So I want to go
back to something you said last nightjunior promo that had the Internet buzzing,
(15:33):
and it was one sentence that yousaid, what's a buck shot to a
kill shot? Everybody and their momsstarted flipping out on social media because you
mentioned kill shot. Now we hada question gets submitted to us on social
media saying I'm sure the answer isno, since that chapter of his career
is over, but I'd love toknow if you would consider putting on the
(15:56):
kill shot mask just one more time. And this is lead blood. You
know I told you these you haveto be quick. Yeah, we're going
back to, you know, beingall around different medias and stuff. You
contendue to expand your reach over multimedias. What is coming up for Swerve
(16:18):
next in the world of music?Do you everything you can give us some
behind the scenes of Oh dude,like I got two music videos dropping this
weekend. So September thirty as theday of Collision. That's my birthday as
well. I have the working yeah, thank you, I have the working
music video dropping that day. Andboth of my music videos are produced and
directed, the songs and the musicvideos by Profit, the producer who won
(16:41):
two Grammys with Kanye West on theDinned album. So so just those two
videos, like when we shot thosethree days in a row, two different
three three different venues, all beforedoing Dynamite that Wednesday, and then added
two matches that Wednesday, that's theone I have. That's when I kicked
(17:03):
r Fox out of Mobile Embassy andthen later on that night had to face
off against and eight and Antager getsto see him funking them. So that's
was the That was a busy week, and yeah, that was a busy
That was a busy day itself.And then so now then we did a
cipher at three am in Atlanta,So that's dropping October two. So we
(17:25):
have September thirtieth, Marcus on yourcalendars, don't forget it. September thirtieth.
Work at music video by Swore ofthe Realists feature in Fireman, who
has a lot of writer's credits withChance the rapper and Kanye was currently in
Italy right now working on Kanye's nextalbum Kid, so he's on the video
and some cameos in their check forthat. Then the next night, October
(17:48):
first, we have These Dreams followedby Russell Dreams pay per view. That
night we have These Dreams with ZombieJuice who's part of the PLATFA Zombie speaching
in there, Anthony King who doesthe aw wrap ups every week on social
media, and my co host myTz, who just performed for Samuelbara at
Grand Slam. Oh yeah, asmy Tz is on that record as well,
(18:11):
produced by Profit. That drops Octoberone, early in the day for
Wrestle Dream or before Wrestle Dream.It's called the song, it's called These
Dreams. And then the next day, October two, we dropping the mt
freestyle featuring myself, Anthony King,and my Tz just a snippet of another
mixtape working on and MS dance forEvery Move made includes the team that is
(18:33):
our little trios when we get togetherand we form Ultron. So all that's
all the stuff you need to belooking forward to YouTube dot com backs last
Sour City podcast check on that it'sgoing to be in matter. I just
subscribed hit the bell for the notificationsbecause it's coming your way this weekend.
And I have to say, youknow, historically wrestlers that dabbled in music,
(18:55):
it's been really wack. I mean, there's not a lot of good
examples of quality music from wrestlers,but you're definitely the exception, just like
you are in the ring too,So kudos to you on that. You
only get better getting in the roomwith better people. Thanks. A lot
of times, music is a verycan kill your creativity if it kills your
confidence. So if you get inthere with people that are willing to like
(19:22):
let you know you're not the besthere, you're not the best at this,
and you take that on the chinand you build with those guys,
you can truly grow and become actuallyreally good at your craft. And that's
what I'm just working with. I'mworking with top level guys in the industry
that are literally truly wanting me togrow and working with you to grow.
That's amazing, man, And youknow, it's it's an honor to have
(19:45):
you on the show. I knowwe talked to you last time, and
a lot of things have changed sincethe last time we talked to you,
and you know how this show goeson. You come on here, you
go on to win gold. Well, you came on last time, you
went on to win gold, youwent on to win the aw tag team
titles. You come on now.I believe that title above my head is
going to be yours within the nextyear. I've been staring at this entire
(20:07):
interview and I'm getting hungry. Imean, I'm not gonna say it's that
one. I'm gonna say it's thisone that's right here. Yeah, I
mean I kind of want yours too, Yeah, yeah, yeah, badly
I will. I will mel itto you and you can have it your
and it's all yours, will swerve. It is an honor to have you
(20:29):
on the show. We're looking forwardto you bringing the Dog out and hang
Man Page and then after Sunday nighton Wrestle Dream, we're gonna hear and
your winner is to We're frequent andthen we could see No, I'm not
do his dance. Maybe if Iallow it, yeah maybe maybe if he's
a if he's good, I'll allowit. But it is my city,
so maybe I'll treat you. Idon't know yet. We hope you enjoyed
(20:52):
today's episode of The Battleground Podcast.Make sure you give it five stars and
a nice review. To stay upto date with the show, follow the
at Battleground podcast on Instagram.