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Swerve Strickland shouts out Kofi Kingston after history-making AEW World Championship victory

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Matty Breisch | Last updated 4/22/24

After watching two of the best AEW matches you will see in Will Ospreay versus Bryan Danielson and Young Bucks versus FTR IV, Swerve Strickland was afforded a chance to enter the ring with Samoa Joe for the second time in as many months to take a shot at the AEW World Championship, this time without “Hangman” Adam Page breathing down his neck. Win, and he would accomplish his dream of becoming the first-ever African American AEW World Champion, a goal he’s been working towards for months now, but if he lost the match, well, he’d just be another notch in Joe’s belt, which has over 100 holes if you include all of his various runs over the past 24 years.

Upon the strike of referee Stephon Smith’s 1-2-3, it became official: Strickland became the AEW World Champion, and needless to say, he had plenty of things to say about the match and its implications for the future during the AEW Dynasty press conference.

Asked what it’s like to accomplish his dream, Strickland celebrated the performers who came before him, specifically Kofi Kingston, the former WWE Champion who did a fantastic job of changing the industry for fans like Swerve who dreamed of becoming a World Champion.

“Friends of mine. Seeing friends like Kofi. The last five years, that’s probably one of the biggest inspirational things you’ve ever seen, not just Black history, but wrestling history, period,” Swerve Strickland told reporters via Fightful. “That’s motivating. That’s inspiring. That makes me be like, I want to do that for the next generation. I don’t want to just do it once, I want to do it multiple times. The fact that I was able to somewhat recreate a feeling like that, in just a small amount of time, not 20 years later, not 15, 30, 40 years later, but that close in time, that’s progress in my opinion, in my mind. It’s not just me, it’s a team. Nana is part of that. My people, my family, none of this happens without any of these guys together. All of this is pushing me and pulling something out of me that I didn’t know I had.”

Whoa, first Strickland shouts out Big E, and then he gives props to Kofi Kingston? Is Strickland going to appear on UpUpDownDown next to complete his New Day trifecta? I mean, probably not, as that’s a WWE-sponsored show, but hey, that didn’t stop Strickland from discussing his victory further and its cultural importance, as he believes his AEW run is about to headline the company for the foreseeable future.

Swerve Strickland shouts out his friend Kofi Kingston and his WM world title win from 5 years ago, and how it inspired him to become AEW's first Black World Champion. pic.twitter.com/IHJzPRmqx2

— Drainmaker (@DrainBamager) April 22, 2024

Swerve Strickland wants to lay the groundwork for future wrestlers.

Continuing his answer regarding representation and his own ambitions, Swerve Strickland celebrated Tony Khan for giving him this opportunity, as it should help to pave the way for future wrestlers who have similar ambitions.

“Tony believing in me, putting me in opportunities. He didn’t give me anything. He gave me an opportunity to make something out of it. It was up to me to do the work. That should go for anybody, not just any black person, any person period. I hate hearing on social media, ‘Oh, they weren’t given a chance.’ No, they were given chances, what did they do with those chances? You’re given chances, whether big or small, but you have to make something out of that s**. I was given small opportunities, company after company after company, time and promotion. It didn’t matter, I found a way to make something out of it and I pushed forward and I made it uniquely me. It was Swerve doing it. It wasn’t another wrestler doing it, it was Swerve doing it. That’s the only way to progress in this game,” Swerve Strickland explained.

“If you listen to my podcast, my man Monteasy, we say this s**t every episode. We just had Adam Copeland on saying the same s**t we do every episode, every week. We put out that content because it’s not just content of us talking, these are tools. We want to give tools to people of the next generation. It’s not just us saying it, it’s people who have been there and done it that are saying the same s**t I’m saying. If it’s not coming from my mouth, maybe it’s coming from our guest’s mouth and maybe that’s going to change someone else’s life and get them to get up and be inspired to move forward and do something. Something that they were missing, something small, and they were missing that little nugget, and they go and listen to these people that have done it, been successful in all acts of entertainment and the world. They can go out there and find something, and it’s a tool to go move and possibly do something like this.”

What will the future hold for Strickland? Will he put on some incredible efforts and establish himself as one of the best in-ring stars in AEW history? Or will his reign instead be overshadowed by Will Ospreay, who is putting on five-star matches on television regularly and has a good shot of matching, if not surpassing Kenny Omega’s record-setting seven-star match with Kazuchika Okada from NJPW Dominion 6.9? Factor in “Hangman” Adam Page, and who knows, this might just be the best run of AEW ever.