Shane “Swerve” Strickland Recalls Long Study Sessions With Shawn Michaels

During a recent appearance on the “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet” podcast, Mogul Embassy leader in AEW Shane “Swerve Strickland spoke about his past hour-long tape-study sessions with WWE Hall of Fame legend and Head of Creative for WWE NXT, Shawn Michaels.

“I would have like hour long tape studies with him,” Swerve recalled. “Close the door boom. Its me and him watching old indie stuff. He wanted to see like, ‘Okay, what got you here?’ You’re doing well right now, but I want to know what got you here. He was like really paying attention to my pacing and how I move. And then he was like I see what kind of performer you are.”

Swerve continued, “We’re not really putting you in the position to be the true performer you are and that’s where he started like having creative meetings with Triple H when they were writing TV for the next week or so. Then they would be texting me on the side like alright, Trips wants to see this out of you. Then comes a match with Bronson Reed. Have the match come to the back, Shawn’s like taking me to the side, ‘that’s what I’m talking about.'”

Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.