This past Sunday night was a history-making event for AEW. It was the first-ever AEW Dynasty pay-per-view. ‘The Learning Tree’ Chris Jericho managed to defeat Hook to become the FTW World Heavyweight Champion for the first time in his career. Willow Nightingale also managed to finally defeat Julia Hart and captured her first title in the Jacksonville-based promotion. The eventful night came to an end with Swerve Strickland become the first African-American to win the top prize in the Tony Khan-led promotion.
Following Swerve Strickland’s championship victory, the leader of the Mogul Embassy had a special ‘Celebration Dinner Party’ with his family and friends. Chris Jericho also was part of the dinner party. The newly crowned FTW World Heavyweight Champion shared his thoughts on Strickland. Jericho claimed that if he was the head booker of the show, he would put Strickland on every interview, every pay-per-view, and many more. Jericho also mentioned that Strickland had charisma and character from the moment he walked into the business.
Tony Khan on the significance of Swerve Strickland winning the AEW World Title
Before the AEW Dynasty go-home episode of Dynamite, Tony Khan sat down for an interview on the Battleground Podcast. During the interview, Khan mentioned that Strickland winning the AEW World Title would be a huge milestone in Stickland’s career and will also be a huge milestone for the Jacksonville-based promotion.
“Well potentially, that would be a huge milestone in the history of AEW and the career of Swerve Strickland. He’s got a huge opportunity and we’ll hear from both Samoa Joe and Swerve tonight on TBS ahead of the big championship fight on Sunday at Dynasty. And I’m sure they’re both gonna have a lot to say about it. So, it would mean the world to AEW. It would be a huge milestone. And I think it would mean a ton, I think it would mean so much in the career of Swerve Strickland. It would be certainly the highlight of his career so far as a big rising star in wrestling. He gets great receptions everywhere we go.
“Whenever the music plays and the question comes out, ‘Whose house?’ Everybody in the crowd always screams out Swerve’s House. People love Swerve. I think he’s got fans all over the world. And potentially it could be a great milestone for AEW if Swerve was to become the first-ever African American AEW World Champion. He’s already been a great World Tag Team Champion in AEW. He’s a great part of the company. It would be a huge milestone and I know it would mean a lot to Swerve and as for what that could potentially mean, I think he’ll have a lot more to say tonight on TBS,” Tony Khan said.
What was your reaction to Swerve Strickland capturing the AEW World Championship?
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