Tony Khan Wanted To Sign Swerve Strickland When AEW First Launched

AEW star Swerve Strickland recently spoke with Amitai Winehouse of The Athletic on a number of topics including his upcoming AEW World Championship 3-Way Match this Sunday at Revolution against “Hangman” Adam Page and current champion Samoa Joe.

During the interview, company president Tony Khan also spoke about a number of topics including how he wanted to sign Strickland when AEW first launched, but he had just been signed by WWE.

Khan said, “After his (Swerve Strickland’s) first match against Tony Nese on AEW Rampage, Chris Jericho walked back to me and said, ‘This guy is really amazing. Where did you find him?’ I’ve been watching him for years. I wanted to bring him into AEW when we first launched, but he had just been signed by WWE. Swerve is a wildcard. We saw that Swerve is a breakout star. He won the Tag Team Championship in his first year and went on to have a massive 2023 while being showcased as a singles star. The idea was to showcase Swerve in feature positions with the intent and belief that crowds all over the world would buy into him. I believed he’d become very popular.”