AEW World Champ Swerve Strickland Talks About How Music and Movies Impacted His Character & More

All Elite Wrestling's World Champion Swerve Strickland stopped by to talk with Josh Martinez about the evolution of his on-screen character and how certain hip-hop artists helped in the process. He also talked about how a show at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens changed the trajectory of his career forever and more!

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey know what up. I'm JoshMartinez Z one hundred, New York's number
one hit music station and the SuperstarCrossover Podcast with our guest, aw World
Heavyweight Champion Swerve Strict Little sub Bro. It was going on and of course
when you got Swerve, you gotPrince Nana as well. Let's get it,
get it. I gotta say Ilove the dynamic between Yeah, it's

(00:23):
it's organic, it seems natural,it seems fun. What I like the
most is that you do you,you do you. It's not very You
don't smile when he's down, youdon't sell it. He's a wrestling term.
When did you guys realize, ohshit, we got something here for
me. I noticed it when wedid a Grand Slam. Oh right here

(00:45):
and at that yeah, okay,because the Gates of Agony and the Mobile
Embassy went out, they did thematch against the elite, the Young Bucks
and Hangman I did. They wentout and did their own entrance. I
came out in the middle of themiddle of the match, middle of what's
going on, and the cameras allshifted to him and they were like,
is he going to do it?And then he did the dance and then

(01:06):
the whole crowd started rocking with it, and we were late in the show,
and so they were still interacting likelike really heavily towards like the dynamic,
but everybody was like all swore thatmeans none I was going to dance.
So we were like not even closeto one another. So that's why
I knew it was like, Okay, we got something crazy and he hit
it right on the mail at theash Stadium. It was going to be

(01:27):
a big night for the swar tocome out and kind of what was it
the approach the elite? Yeah,yeah, yeah, they were going they
were defending the trails, sat thesix man titles and just was history.
Yes, sir, no planet involved, And we don't really plan much.
It's just like like there's times I'mlike I'll watch a match back and I'm

(01:49):
like, I didn't even know hedid that. But but I think that
goes to being a veteran, causeI think a lot of people don't realize
that, not that you've been inthe game for a minute too long some
times when you think about it,but yeah, for about twenty seven years,
are you, mister Strickland, You'vebeen You've been in the game for
a while too. I mean fifteenfor me, fifteen now we know you

(02:09):
from the w w WI two Afive live in the Indies before that.
And then how would you say yourcharacter has changed or evolved since getting to
AEW. I think I just maturedit. Like all it did was just
like what going to before? Evenlike WW it was like just on the

(02:30):
independence and stuff. I was likeexperimenting with a lot of things, like
especially music. Travis Scott I wasa huge influence on, huge influence on
me, Tyler Creator Asap Rocky,a lot of these like these artists,
these visual artists that take a lotof visuals and psychedelic type stuff and put
in their visuals and stuff like kitCutti's a big big on that too.

(02:53):
I took a lot of influence onthat, and I was like, Okay,
that's the sound. How would thatlook on an individual? How would
they look on a wrestler? Andthat's where like the glasses and the hair,
the look the colors started really comingin. And then when I went
over to NXT, It's like,Okay, how do I bring that onto
weekly television? How do I tellthat really story of the character of who

(03:16):
I was and for a while,it's just like me just being myself and
then like I was like, Igotta turn up louder. There's like at
that time, it was just likea stacked roster of talent. It was
huge. It was really tough andcompetitive, so in order to stand out,
and it's in a unique way,like when call ups were happening and
then firings were happening, it wasjust like leaving me a little bit of

(03:38):
window to get more time. Soit was like I had to make use
of that time and make it matter. So I went back and watched some
more film and like I watched moremovies and like Wesley Snipes, I love
every character he's ever really played onwhat's your favorite movie? Though it's not
really a Snipes movie, but likeDemolition Man is where I got a lot
of influence because that's that's a loonmovie. But it was still like count

(04:02):
says, yeah, he's like Wesley'sthis is a Wesley movie. But I
called this the lone movie. Butlike that, like it was it was
a villain that you just couldn't takeyour eyes off of. He was so
charismatic. You wanted to see whathe did next, I was like,
I want to find a way tocapture that same type of energy. So
that's when the color and hair startedcoming in, like changing the gear.

(04:24):
It was Malachi Black at the time, Alistair. He we were in the
locker room. He was like,man, everybody's doing the like biker cut
in trunks with the cake pads.Looking right. Now, if you step
outside and change up your look alittle bit, you can get ahead of
like a lot of other people.So I was like, that's why I
went to long pants and the bootsand stuff and change up just to like
standing out. Was like kind oflike, oh okay, that's different.

(04:46):
So Malachi Black was the one thatinspired a little bit of a yeah.
He just he just put brought attentionto it. He was like, go
in the locker room, he saweverybody was kind of like mainly because everybody
was wearing what he was wearing,but like mainly, but it was just
like it was still something that's likehuh, got it? And and so
it helped me shift just and beingjust like brave enough to shift to make

(05:09):
a shift, and like I triedit and it caught people's attention, and
that's what then come to aw islike, Okay, now I'm going into
a darker realm of things, andI'm we're we're merging the groups of mobile
affiliates when the embasc So I'm like, how do I mature it to like
a boss level? So I wentback to West Wesley never failed me before,

(05:30):
right, So I took like NewJack City and I matured that until
like what would New Jack Cities NinoBrown be in the music industry, And
that's where the mogul Moniker kind ofcame from. And then here we are.
So speaking of the music you startedgetting into. We talked about this
off air a little bit. Youkind of started recording after COVID, so

(05:54):
you're kind of relatively new to theactual process of recording, right. Yeah.
Still I'm like maybe four years wow. Yeah, And like from you're
on it's impressive. Yeah, Iappreciate it, but but I also think
that that goes back to and Ithink there's something to it when you listen
to hipp and I'm assuming you haveall my life, Yeah, that you
just pick up these certain cadences andyeah, rhythm that came from like just

(06:15):
these constant years of just driving upand down the road. And listening to
CDs, like I was like,I know every word to this CD.
I know every word is this citaAnd until the muscle was kind of already
developing, and I didn't even knowthe like follow a cadence, follow a
rhythm and follow like the syllable schemesand stuff like that. I didn't really
really know that. I was kindof teaching myself. It's almost like you

(06:36):
mess with a computer long enough youkind of can disassemble and put it back
together. But now you do isjust get like a certification and then you're
officially then so like that that's I'mstill like trying to get my certification for
it in a sense of in themusic industry. But if you look at
the short time and the resume andlike the little bit of experience of me

(06:57):
actually recording music. I have featureswith music Old Child, I got features
with John Connor, Mickey Fax,Benny the Butcher, bun Bee coming up,
you know, Flashed Garments. I'mworking with like producer like crazy like
Grammy winning producers of Profit and Chasethe Money who works with j I D.

(07:18):
And Jay Cole and these guys.I'm in a really interesting circle that
a lot of other wrestlers, currentday wrestlers haven't even touched and tapped into
yet in a sense. And Ipride myself on just being able to make
those leaps so early because I'm justnot afraid to do it. Now.
How important is someone like Nana toyour career and someone like let's say Malachi

(07:39):
Black who has just like a differentview on things, Yeah, that's willing
to also help, because I thinkthat's a huge difference. There are people
that are OG's that are just gonnakind of keeps it to themselves, and
then there are those like a ninehour like you mentioned before, even just
a subtle comment the locker room changes. How important are those people to your
career? Well, for one,it starts with me. My humility is
what's going to take me to actuallytaking the step to do that. So

(08:01):
like some people like I can say, like imagine somebody else coming in,
like, man, you should changethat. And I'm sure it's bro like
like maybe we start waring pants tothe office. You know, that's maybe
looks better. And you could takethat as like, man, this like
this dude's trying to dis me.That's like coming at me a little bit
or you could take it as likeyou know, I'm gonna look at myself
and let's see how that how thatlet me try and let's see what works

(08:24):
out. So there's that and that'sthe just that that locker room culture like
positive locker room culture because it's notpositive. But that's why I say locker
room culture because it can be positive. It's your perspective on what's the positivity.
There's We've had issues in the lockerroom too, but I've never had
any issues. You don't hear melike any of my name throwing that in
any of this kind of stuff.And like anywhere I've gone, I've always

(08:48):
had positive Like I've always had apositive outlook on things because I took it.
I took things and just be likehmm okay, I'm gonna take that
and use that as a tool andget better with it. And so like
Malachi could be anybody like I've hadaj Styles come up to me and tell
me, like give me advice.I'm like, we never spoken him before,
but he told me something. I'mlike, you got it, and

(09:11):
I keep moving. That's just militaryupbringing for me, like one like I
need one command and getting done.You know. So with that just taking
any type of like anybody sees anytype of thing, like a perspective thing,
it's I use it as a tool, and I can't ever look at
something in one way. I gottalook at it from his perspective, like,

(09:33):
hey, Nana, you see that? How did that look? He's
he's the first person like for mewith our dynamic, He's the first person
I go to after match is done, like every time, same thing here.
I go right to him and Itry to get his feedback because what
he's been doing in the ring forthe last fifteen years is unbelievable work work
that out of guys right now inthe pro wrestling business are wishing to get

(09:54):
to that type of level as faras an athlete is concerned. And like
I told everyone before, I've knownSwerved since he's about nineteen six eighteen,
and his humility to someone like mewho hasn't gotten signed until the last two
or three years was unbelievable. Hecame to me with respect. He wanted
to get, you know, myadvice and feedback on what I thought about

(10:18):
his matches. And he did thatfor about ten to fifteen years until he
got signed to WWE, and thenhe crossed over to AW and then he
merged with the with the Embassy andwe we're here today. Do you think
there was a match in particular,maybe a program that made everybody kind of
in the back if you will go, oh that he's a play for that

(10:39):
now. Oh yeah, there's acouple of them, but there's like steps
for sure. Yeah. The firstone I would say was the Battle Royal
double nothing last year, okay,because it was like the Battle Royal and
like some people are like there waslike great talent and great names death.
Like you can go onto discourses andhear people's chatter like why these guys in
this out of oil? These guysshould be doing something bigger and better on

(11:03):
the show. You could have spreadspread these guys out and like had them
in different spots. But I'm like, well I have I know, Like
throughout the match I was going,I was. It came down to me
in Orange Cassidy the last two yep, and it was like I can make
something out of this, and sureenough we killed it to a point where
like Tony Kam was like, ohnow I got to put these guys in

(11:24):
a match on we give them sometime on TV. I gotta put these
guys in a in a freaking internationaltitle match, and it was like all
right, cool. That opened uppeople's eyes more like, oh, we
think Swarf can actually beat Orange Cassiefor this title. Then it turned you
like, matter of fact, Ithink we want to see Sworve beat Orange
Cassie for this title. And thatjust gave you a little bit of inkling

(11:46):
of like, oh man, wewant that, we want that, we
want that. So that's what makesThat's what built the drama in the suspense
so much in that that carried overto the Darby Allen story and then like
shooting of like the attack and everythinglike that. It was just like at
this arrest at the school, itwas like, oh man, for me,

(12:09):
it was like you can't talk tome and think you can just walk
out of the arena and it's thebeef is over. I can get you
anywhere I can, Like that's whatnow. I was like, Oh,
that kind of spikes the character arca little bit of what Swerve's capable of
now, Yeah, like we knowhe can go here. Now that's the
extremes of things. And Nana islike kind of like playing like that conch.

(12:33):
He's kind of like my moral compassof things. It's like we're going
too far. No now, pushit, push it. And I was
like, all right, boss,we gotta go. We gotta get out
of here, because like we almostgot caught. And the funny thing is
like he knows how far I'm willingto go. Yeah, so sometimes he
has to pull me back or likenow's not the time to fight. We
got to get out of here.Let's I follow his lead, but I'm

(12:54):
there to at least give him somekind of like opinion on the situation before
we get the respective on things.It's like, Okay, I can do
this right now and call some chaos, but he's like, or we can
get to this money and worry aboutthis later. How important was that Texas
Death match with Hangman too Major?That was like that was then now I
was gonna say like Seattle and Wresselldream that that was. The next jump

(13:15):
up was like Wow, he beatlike a former world champion singles man.
Then it was like, yeah,they're going Texas Death Match. He's not
gonna go to and oh I didn'tthink you would. Honestly, from like
the historic booking perspective of just beinga wrestling fan. Okay, it's gonna
go one one and then they're gonnahave a third match. But if the
Texas Death Match isn't the blowoff,they're gonna do something even crazier. And

(13:37):
then it was like, oh thatwas it. Hey Man, can't say
shit now, like it's it's twooh series done. Was there a spot
that you tried getting clear that theywere like Nacho or was it just like,
hey, we trust out due youwent out there and fought out there,
and just like whatever's under that ring, it's a fair game. And
I think that's another thing with Hangman. He's another one that's Hangman's been known

(13:58):
to push the boundary. Album waslike, I'm someone who wants to push
it just as much as he does. So that's where that was. That's
where that really made it something crazy. We just kept wanting to push the
envelope more and more and more,and it's weird. I have a history
of doing that in Los Angeles becauselike Lucia Underground was more so with being

(14:18):
Fox with another one who wanted tojust push it and push it and push
it more. And I kind ofhave like this hybrid style, like,
wait, there's a great athleticism inthis too. It's not just like shit
happening. Everything makes sense, Yeah, everything makes sense. And it was
just like these are like actually,like without all this stuff, this is
a great match too. These aregreat performers. These are great athletes.

(14:39):
But then like you add an elements, this is still great performers. These
are great athletes. They're just likebrutal. There was just a lot of
emotion in that match from beginning toend, from from the start of it
to the finish, and probably tomeet one of the greatest matches that that
swove was in, among the greatestmatches that he's been in since we've been
working. But I feel like theemotion tied and so much to like the

(15:01):
motive of is like I pushed theboundary, so now he has to push
it and he's warranted to push it. Now He's like, I did I
crossed a heavy line? And he'slike, okay, he crossed the line.
To me, it was a matterof like invading a man's privacy.
Yeah yeah, So like that's that'sthe most all like and being defenseless and

(15:24):
you can't do anything about it.So that I put him in a very
costly space where he's at a differentspace. Now. I got to him,
like, what do you do tosomeone who's like, like, prior
to that match, everything that HangmanPage is done in a w even in
wrestling, going back to New Japanand stuff, he's done a lot.
He's like, So as me,I'm like, Okay, where do I

(15:46):
belong in that history books of HangmanPage? Now? How do I make
my mark in that link and thatlegion of them? Trying to climb up
and get to that where he's ata former world champion, He's already like
had like bangs with Kenny, bangerswith Brian Damson, bangers with the Young
Bucks in the tag match Bangers,like he had a death match earlier that
year with Moxley. So that's like, how do where do I fall in

(16:10):
line in any of that? Andso like I was like, I'm gonna
kick the door open where I'm gonnado something. It's just like none of
these guys have been able to getto him the way that I did.
So I'll still remember. I stillremember when Sworth came to me on that
day and we were just he wasjust preparing in the back for it,
and he just looked at me andhe's like, are you ready? And

(16:33):
that was it, and I waslike, oh man, this is going
to be a war to say firstfive minutes to change history. This is
called the Superstar Crossover because my lastguest had a question for you, and
our last guest was WWE superstar BeckyLynch. She wanted to know, what
do you want the audience to knowabout you? I want to be remembered

(16:56):
as some like it's I'm the deafdefinition. If I want to categorize everything
into one, I'm the definition ofIt's not how you start, it's how
you finish. Like I'm the onlyperson from two or five Live to become
a headlining pay per view guy orwin awards or win a world champion,
and I'm one and as far aslike even in the two of five Live

(17:18):
era, I was one of theleast looked at guys to even be a
cruiserweight champion at that time, likein every sense like NXT, I was
like, oh, sear, itisn't going to be an NXC champion like
his, Like I was already.I've literally kept receipts of podcasts saying his
cap is here. We don't seehim here. I was like bet so
like my so, my whole careeris like it's not about how you begin,

(17:44):
It's always about how you finish it. And that's that stays true to
anything you do, even in sports. I don't care if you work in
the mail room. Eventually you canmake it to the top of the skyscraper
and CEO at some point point.But you gotta stay consistent and you gotta
keep moving. You got it,you gotta. He loves this to his

(18:07):
core. This is a part ofwho he is and the spirit of Sweve
Strickland, and that's why it's alwaysa great thing to work with him.
So to final questions before we wrapthings up, do you have a question
for our next guest? What hasthe wrestling business done to make you a
better person? M I like that. That's really tough in our industry.
What is this doing to make youa better person? The sacrifices you make

(18:30):
and guilt that you may have,you may feel guilty to make sacrifices that
and playing the weaving through the politicalmindfields of things like are you like out
it? Are you out to makeyour promotion better or yourself better. And
final question, who do you thinkis the most underrated in the game today?
Underrated in the game today. Thatthat's that's tough because there's like I

(18:53):
can go through a lot of likehm hm hm. Truth be told,
I'm going to always say Sammy CallaenOkay, he's one of the most underrated,
not only just talents but minds.He's the reason I have the mind
that I have now for sure.So one more time, aw World Heavyweight

(19:17):
Champions Worst Circle. I appreciate you, brother, thank you for stopping through.
Appreciate you too, brother, tobe here.