The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Swerve Strickland On AEW Career After WWE, Beef With 'Hangman,' Sean Michaels Influence, Music + More

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Swerve Strickland To Discuss AEW Career After WWE, Beef With 'Hangman,' Sean Michaels Influence, And His Music. Listen For More!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. Law and La Rosa filling in for Jess. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, it is.

We have Swerve Strickland, ladies and gentlemen. What's going on? What's going on, everybody? AEW superstar. Yes, sir. Former AEW world champion. Congratulations. Yes, first black AEW world champion.

There you go. And one of the last ones in the last decade, and the industry-wide, so I'm really proud of that. world champion congratulations yes first black aw world champion there you go and one last one's in the last decade and the industry-wide so i'm really proud of that why is aw so red hot right now like we had uh um mercedes monace yeah yeah shout out mercedes thank you for coming in and opening this door for aw to come in for me to come and do it again but um it's our roster it's our talent it's our drive it's our revolution of the style of pro wrestling it's also the vast variety that we offer and for me it's like also the inclusivity it's the like the top japanese wrestlers in the world the top luchadors in the world from mexico the top talents from canada like of all time where you're getting all of it

you know um it's also that um hunger that we have we always feel like we're fighting to prove it you know we're always feel like we there's something to prove there's something to fight for and progress to every single week um three times a week on television TBS and TNT so there's a lot to fight for and there's a lot to prove and I think and I feel like you see that and you feel that in our matches and our promos our product you know now how did you get into wrestling tell us that story what made you say you know what mom dad i want to be a wrestler it was mainly mom yes uh so i went to the military right after high school like two weeks after i graduated high school my mom literally was my recruiter and she was also uh my sister's recruiter so she got us she both

recruited us civilian wise civilian recruiter got us both recruited the same unit and I went three years after my sister went in did my uh two weeks uh two months in basic training did my eight weeks eight months after that so I didn't come home for like another 10 months after this I'm 16 17 years old doing this on my own. Come back and I was just like, you know what? Like I was working a job. I was, my first job was at Comcast Cable. I was like installing cable in people's homes.

Then I went to like, I got laid off from that job. Then I went to just packing trucks at UPS at four in the morning. I was like, all right, you know what? If I'm going to be doing this, I'm going to be working hard. I want to do, I'm going to work hard at something that I'm passionate about. Something that like, I don't think I can do. I want to try to do something that I don't think I can do. And pro wrestling was just something I was just passionate about since I was

12. And I was like, he was watching, he was a wrestling fan. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like there was the video games that really got me hooked. It was my friends, Smackdown, Smackdown, Shut Your Mouth. Got you, got you, got you. That was the one. It was just like the roster was crazy. Like the stories was crazy. And this was the athleticism.

But Rey Mysterio was the one that really got me. Very underrated wrestler I think Rey Mysterio is. He's the greatest luchador of all time. And I think like his impact is just like crosses over so much and so big respect to Uncle Ray he's still a good friend of mine um so I would say it was just like okay I had the military to fall back on if anything was to happen so I had that let me move down to Virginia from Pennsylvania let me start my wrestling career I called this promoter Dave McLeod told me to come through I moved down Sunday I was training on Tuesday my mom paid my first month's tuition and then I had a month to get a job to pay for the rest of the way and sure enough that's what

that was the rest of my journey so you you come from a military family though right like your parents both of them or uh my my dad my dad uh was served in desert storm damn so what made you want to get into it just because your dad did it uh it was uh something my mom thought was a good foundation to start my so you didn't have a choice your mom was like your mom made you yeah you must be bad too they're shipping you off to the military yeah yeah 16th uh yeah i graduated at 17 i was like boom two weeks later i was on a bus yeah but um it wasn't bad it was just like i'm actually like at the time i was like man i want to just go out and do what my friends are doing i want to like you know see the world i want to like have fun let me at least like sleep on the couch for two weeks give me something but that's what started

me to learn how to be a man and to um go after things not because like man oh this is something you can kind of put off no if you don't do it yourself it's not getting done yeah like you know i gotta learn to shave i gotta learn to do my laundry i gotta learn to buy a plane ticket i gotta learn to do all these things and i did it because i was in a i was put in a position that i didn't have the choice i had to learn it i had to be. I had to put myself in these situations. And so when I started my wrestling journey in my career, I was, like, comfortable. I was like, oh, what's the worst that could happen?

Oh, you know what? Let me try that. Let me do that. And it's, like, that fear and that confidence, that fear went away and my confidence grew. And that, like, resonated with my work and my wrestling. And you entered into WWE at first? No, no, that came like 10 years later.

Okay, so what was the build, like what was the journey up? Independence. So my first year in wrestling, 2008, I started training. August of 2008, and my first match was until March of 2009. Within that time, I was training. I had the military, so I had to do my drills from Virginia

all the way back up to Pennsylvania. That's a four-hour drive once a month. Had to get a job. Started school, ITT Tech, and drafting and design.

And then, so all that was going on. But then, later, 2009, my oldest daughter was born. So now I was like, ooh,

that's like, I'm taking on too much. I'm taking on too much at like 18 something has to go and so school had to get rid of school uh found odd jobs here and there my mom got me a job working at a cemetery and like uh just doing like groundskeeper work picking up on the grass and all that stuff and then uh just that's that's really what my daughter being born my oldest and i is that's really what sparked me i was like okay this has to work now so what are these wrestling matches happening because you know independent when you google stuff you see like wrestling matches in mexico or yeah that's that's the independence that's the grind so that's what you would wrestle so you just yeah i'll do tours in mexico like i didn't start doing tours till the uk in 2013 but other than that like

before that i was like i would get a connect that guy would link me to this promoter and then i would just go to the show and just sit and watch the show in hopes of like hopefully i can get booked so i would help stack put the chairs away i I would help like hey anything you need. I'm here I'm like I live like not that long not far away. I can be back here How do you know who you're wrestling cuz usually wrestling is like you we have to know what we? What each other's doing so now they're just throwing you a ring you just be like go you just figure it out You just figure it out. That's part of the that's part of it. I don't you mimicking moves You saw in the video game all the time. Okay, I first got in, I was just doing like, I thought this was cool.

I used to do this all the time. Hit the button, it would work. So I was like, I'd translate that. But then when I started training, I was like really fine. I was like, yo, this isn't me. I shouldn't be doing this. But getting in the ring, you find that stuff out. So that's where I was like, I need to get in the ring more.

I need to get in the ring more i need to get in the ring with people i like i don't like i that match me that don't match me i need to get with people a variety of talents and body shapes and all this stuff tags this all that so i just like spread my variety of like knowing who i am and figure out who i am and then like also understand how to get better and how to make myself an asset on any show with any promoter got you how'd you get the name swerve big sean man i'm a big big sean fan yeah so um does he know that hopefully hopefully this gets out there and just the big sean i'm a big fan of yours i actually talked to say it ain't tone a lot and he was the one that helped write uh i don't f with you and stuff so i i'm like a degree

away from sean i never met him but um when mercy came out that was over that was hard i was like and i was looking for like a nickname i was like shane strickland at the time i named my same myself shane because i like the the rhythm of like shane strickland yeah it's like a cool but also i had a cat named shane that ran away when i lived in germany but that's another story so but um it was just like, I needed like a boxing acronym, like Sugar Shane Mosley, something, something, something. Like, you know, and I was like, Swerve. I was like, that's it.

Wow. Because it just felt like, it was like a hip hop crossover and it felt smooth and it felt right. Salute to Big Sean. So how different is, is it Stefan? Yeah, yep. So how different is Stefan Strickland from swerve strickland the um i feel like swerve strickland is a persona that's just my childlike wonder just put on display i have a lot of things about myself

as a child watching a lot of cartoons watching a lot of like anime playing a lot of these video games doing like listening to music i listen to watching the movies that i watch i take all those things and it's combined to make what Swerve is. And as the years, if you watch me from 2013, 2012, I would say, is really where it started taking off. And then 13, 14, 15, you saw the Swerve persona just mature and grow. So that's why I'm really proud about what Swerve has become because you've ultimately seen Swerwerves age of 10 years plus and now you're

but a lot of people are just seeing it from like 2022 23 on now but if you go back in my career you've seen swerve the origin of that 2012 you know i'll ask mercedes the same question because you know i'm from the era where it was wcw and then WWE was everything. So when you see people leave WWE to go to companies like AEW, to me that's unheard of because I thought WWE was the cream of the crop. So what made you walk away from WWE? It wasn't my choice. It was just like we got fired. Oh, yeah, okay, okay.

But it wasn't like I did something. It was just a political landscape of things. It was like the pandemic people coming out of the pandemic there's a lot of like layoffs going up and down offices talent like you're we and you would have a match wednesday you fought on friday i'm like what happened like you were literally booked so you didn't do anything wrong but it's just like these cutting costs left and right so a lot of people felt the effects of that and it was out of our hands it was out of like uh triple h's hands there's nothing he could do it was just like it was just so high up then eventually we got drafted to smackdown as a group

as hit row and that's why i was like like with vince mcmahon finally listening to him now and talking with him it wasn't very long i didn't get a lot of time up there but just that little bit that little glimpse of that window was enough to change my mindset to make me better. Is it someplace you would want to go back to? Like, you know, let me build myself up in AEW, then maybe go to WWE? No, I'm happy with building AEW.

I'm happy with building myself in AEW. AEW's giving me something that I don't think WWE could ever give me. And I'm really proud of that, and I wave the flag proudly because Tony Khan didn't take a chance on me. You know, he knew what he wanted from me, and he put me in the position, and he was like, now grow. And I'm like, okay, what Adam and News do I have to grow?

He's like, whatever you want. There was no parameters, there was no red tape, and I learned how to just become like a true businessman on top of just a professional wrestler. That's why the mogul persona is truly personified in AW. It's literally let me be my best self as a man and a professional. So that's what they gave you? They gave you that?

They instilled that entrepreneurial spirit in you? Yes, yes. That's crazy. Your Mercedes answers are basically identical kind of. Same. Yeah, it's beautiful. I haven't even listened to her stuff. Yeah, that's crazy.

She was here this morning. No, it's dope also too, because it just shows how much the game has changed, right? And it's because to me, that's just a reflection of how the whole world is now. Like all the non-traditional institutions. No. It's out the window. Yeah. It's out the window.

And like, so last night i came in you know kaz uh guys with the cast yeah shout out kaz he invited me on ab to uh the apollo theater to watch the unveiling of the evolution of the black quarterback um and uh roger goodell was there this is like the apollo theater roger goodell was there i'm watching michael stran on stage michael vick jalen hurts all like all talking about um the evolution where they went all these like um struggles that the black quarterback went through and that like coaches in the league the infrastructure really thinking like the black man is not capable of playing quarterback because they're not smart enough

to ball plays and do these things and stuff and talking about like he's not he shouldn't be paid this wage he's above market value and i'm listening here like man there was an article like a month ago about me getting my new contract one of the highest contracts in wrestling recently and i'm i'm paid above market value i'm like these are like 50 years apart and we're still having the same conversations. So I like we're still, like, that's what AEW is beautiful for, and that's why I'm proud to be there, because it's like we're shaking the foundation again like they did 50 years ago. And we're doing it now with pro wrestling.

And if I got to be the person to do that alongside Tony Khan, and we stand strong, I'm like, no, that's our world champion. That's the lead of our company at this moment, and he's going to be the face of the franchise for years to come. And I'm riding with that. It took a coach from 1970 to do the same thing for his quarterback, for Doug Williams to win a championship. And somebody said at the end of the documentary, it's on Amazon.

You can watch it now. He said when Michael Vick asked him, he was like, what's the legacy? What's your legacy that you want to leave behind? And Doug was like, if you write the history of the league, can they leave your name out of it? That's how you know you made an impact. So eventually when the history books of AEW gets rewritten or however that story's told,

you can't leave Swerve Strickland out of it. And I feel like that's why I need to be in AEW. You bought your mother's childhood home? Or your childhood home? I did, in a sense. Okay, break that down. So, my man Nana here, manager. As soon as we got that contract, we took the bonus money, and we went back to a spot where I grew up on, where we moved back from Germany when I was a military brat.

And we settled on the place and was like, yo, we got a chance to actually make a bid for it. So, we make the bid, actually the property and sure enough we it was it's still in my name the property in the land still in my name but as you can see if you watch aw rival of mine that's we've been going on blood feud for a year now hangman page i despise this man and he hates me probably more in real life you gotta watch the sea gotta watch the sea i watch the show. You got to watch the scene. You got to watch the show. Wait, continue. What did he do to the house? Yeah, because I was listening.

Oh, y'all in? Yeah. Y'all invested? Yeah. Hey, so went to the contract signing on TV on Dynamite. He doesn't show up. Pops up on the screen. You see that Hangman is actually at the house that i purchased and it's

like hasn't been remodeled or anything yet this man walks in pouring gasoline all over the place all over the place and i can't do anything i don't know like he's there i'm here don't know if it's a live feed don't know if it happened already we don't know if it's pre-taped or nothing goes in sits down on a couch. And it's an old couch. I remember this couch when I was little. It was an old couch. He sat down on the front lawn, lights a match,

and the match runs all the way around and goes in the house and burns down right in front of me on live TV. Did y'all plan that? I couldn't plan that. Why isn't he in jail for arson? Yeah. I'm asking the same thing. You got to turn to Snitch Strickland.

I'm asking the same thing. You got to tell him. They ain't never going too far. You got to tell him. It's on live TV. They're not going to say it. This is a big month. Now you got to beat his ass now.

How does your mama feel? How's your family feel? I have yet to talk to my mom about that. You know, I should call her. When did this air? Like maybe two, three weeks ago. Maybe longer. Maybe longer than three weeks ago.

My mom would have been calling me. So have you seen him in the street? Do you have to fight in the ring? Do you see him in the street and just punch him in the face? So the next time I saw him since after that, we had all out the pay-per-view in Chicago. You had the cage match. The cage match.

That was the last time I saw him. And 10,000 had all out the pay-per-view in Chicago. You had the cage match. The cage match. That was the last time I saw him. And 10,000 people sold out. Matter of fact, that was like maybe, what, four days between then? We were at 6,000 to 7,000 tickets sold. That aired. We went to 10,000 sold out. Boom. We main event an unsanctioned match.

Unsanctioned means AEW wipes their hands clean of anything that happens in this match. Oh, y'all can kill each other. We can do whatever we want, and there's no lawsuits. So we have to take it a little bit above the ramifications of what just a regular street fighter, hardcore, or regular cage match usually is. So I have the cage match. I bring out the cinder block. I drop his head on a solid cinder block. Pow. He power bombs my back out the cinder block. I drop his head on a solid cinder block.

Pow. He power bombs my back on the cinder block solid. I still have sciatic nerve damage on my back from this. Then he pulls out from his jacket coat a syringe. A syringe? A hypodermic needle. And he takes it and pokes it right through my cheek. Stabs me.

And it goes all the way through what in the soap opera is this is that why you been in Miami you still getting yourself together I'm still trying to figure myself out right now he's such a what was in the syringe

I'm not medically cleared still what was in the syringe I don't know I didn't put it in there you didn't check how could I check it came out of his jacket how the hell you can check

the syringe you go to the doctor see what was in his the syringe was in his thing yeah he stabbed me and then he takes a folding metal chair, bashes over my head, goes right through.

I am knocked out completely. So he won. He won. Did he? He won. Jesus Christ. He won by knockout. But to this day, that man has yet to actually pin me

or make me submit. So he's never beat me yet. So during that, where your people's at? They ain't jumping in the ring to help you? It's a cage. They locked out. So you're still not medically cleared? I'm not medically cleared.

So I won't be at Grand Slam tonight. So what's the point in doing all of that? What's the point? Because then you can't fight right now. It's passion. Was the money that good for that cage fight? You got to put it to his crib, man. Like I said, I already signed my contract extension.

I'm set. But I still want to do these matches because I'm passionate about this business. I'm passionate about my company. She asked me if the money was good. Something was said about you that I've never heard. They said people in the WWE felt your contract was above

market price. Yeah. I've never heard anybody complain that somebody got too much money. That's what they said earlier. They only complain when a black person gets paid. I will say that. When it gets paid. And that's what, once again, we shake the foundation of things like that. Because it's like, oh, snap, wait.

And it's not what we would pay. And I'm like, then why are you calling me? Why are you asking me? Right. You know? Like, if I'm not your concern, don't worry about it. Yeah. Don't worry about my pockets and our money.

We good. You have your talent. You made your decision with me two years ago. No hard feelings from me. Boom. I keep it moving. I'm going to figure my way out, and I'm going to build myself up. Is it true they tried to re-sign you?

Yeah. The BV? Yeah. Okay. Well, it wasn't like the words re-sign. They asked about my availability, you know? So that was like, came up. But they never contacted me they contacted my representation and um i'm at a stage now which i enjoyed the fact that i don't have

that direct contact when when you are progressing and getting higher and you're like in rooms with guys like like people like you and stuff you got to kind of keep a little bit of a space in between these type of conversations because it's like you can check my phone it's never been there like i never had direct contact it's always i want to keep that little space but it has been it has been uh communication has been reached out now i've seen the reaction i met you in the airport and like just are stopping to have a conversation people was walking by swerve you know what i mean yeah yeah so people you definitely having an impact. In New York, it's bigger than I thought. We just, me and my man Flash Garmis,

we just did Sneaker Con in Coney Island like two days ago and there's like big names walking around. You got Queens Flip walking around. You got like,

you know, a lot of like Stephon Marbury's walking around there but I'm getting a lot of shout outs and I'm like, yo, I watch this all the time.

Like, where? And they're like, oh man, like, oh my God, I just watched the pay-per-view. Are you okay? Are you like checking on me? And I'm like, there's a lot of people and it's like, wow, I watch it all the time. Like, word? And then like, oh, man, like, oh, my God, I just watched the pay-per-view. Are you okay?

Are you like checking on me? I'm like, there's a lot of people. And it's like, wow, this is like growing bigger than I ever expected, like the impact. And so it's like how can you with that kind of stuff, it's like you can't see that kind of interaction on social media and Twitter. Interactions and comments are never going to show you the impact of an actual person in like giving you the impact of an actual person

giving you that type of love. And I appreciate that. That's my market value right there. That explains it to me. These people aren't commenting and telling you all this stuff. These people are here with you in person. These people are going to show up wherever you go. These people are going to buy your product

and are going to wear it with pride and show this is my guy. I'm rooting for him. No matter what he does, I'm going to buy your product and are going to wear it with pride and show like, yo, this is my guy. I'm rooting for him. No matter what he does, I'm going to be there. When are you getting your get back, man? When are you getting hangman again? When's that match? You need your get back, bro. As soon as I get my medical clearance, man, it's out of my hands right now.

When are you going back in for another retry for the clearance? Right now, we'll see, like, maybe another week or so. I got to go to L.A. in between that time, so I got some other business ventures in between this. Mm-hmm. But, yeah, so. Where Hank Mann live, man?

You got to pull up on his crib, man. I've been to his old house. If you can look back, I literally trespassed and started this whole thing because I went to his house and talked to his child. Y'all must be working with the cops, because how y'all be doing all this and don't nobody get locked up?

Nana's a bad man, bro. He be hiding. He's a bad man. He be talking his way out. He talks me out of situations and into them. Some good, some bad. Here and there. What do you want more? You want to get back on Hangman more or getting your title back?

That's a good question. Maybe one day it might be one and the same because Hangman's on a streak right now. He's on a war path. In a lot of ways, him pressing me has made him better. And I brought out something great

in him that eventually with my absence, he probably will be a world champion again so maybe at that time i'll get both i get my get back in the world championship at the same time but that's the effect of what swerve brings to this roster of all e-wrestling i make your guy better and in turn he makes me better so it's almost like we're slinking each other like he pulls me up to the main event and i become this main event i make history uh first black aw world champion first black world champion and main event wembley stadium ever in history of that building and then boom cage match i can't do nothing with

him he takes me out my body's wrecked he comes he becomes better i bring i'll bring him back to the main event scene so it's like it it's like we're killing each other, but at the same time we're bettering each other at the same time in the product. And you do music too, right? Yes, sir. You rap? Yeah. Okay, okay, okay.

Yeah, yeah. I got three albums out with my group members in Swarf City, Monteezy. He's been signed with Rough Rider back in the day when he was like 17 years old. And he taught me everything I know about rap. And then me and my man Flash Garments like last month put out a project, Motion Sickness. And he's taken me to another level because he's been on the writing team with Kanye West on the Donda album. You know, we went to the Grammys together two years ago and watched our producer Profit win two Grammys for the songs that he put out so I'm in a great team and window with these guys you know so I'm learning from I'm learning

at the later stage of my life but I'm learning the right way rather than trying to go 10 years of doing it wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong so yeah we're doing great stuff with music right now we're going to continue to do more I have songs with Benny the Butcher, Westside Guns been on our records. Westside's a big wrestling fan. Big, big, huge fan. I don't know him personally, but I just know that he's a big wrestling fan.

Hilarious dude, fun dude. Bun B is a mentor of mine, becoming a mentor of Who Kidz, hosting our records. Bun and Westside, did you, it walked you out or something? Yeah, yeah, at Wembley, Wem out or something yeah yeah at wembley wembley stadium yeah we're doing we're doing a lot of great stuff man how'd you connect with them just

all just through the wrestling oh yeah um uh my man albert gentile he's he's honestly the one that really personified the mogul character the persona of what swerve is is uh when i first came out there really started getting motion the tag team champion and stuff he uh brought kevin gates and we had kevin gates do something on the show we brought rick ross in he's done something on the show um fabulous came out with us on grand slam uh two years ago um in new york uh recently had jim jones uh do my intro of man you name it like uh flash brought floyd mayweather to sit front row in vegas when i did my world title match how important is it to merge culture with with wrestling it's it's really big because um people don't know what it is what wrestling truly is until you like or or i would say support it you gotta like something whatever it is you

gotta see what you like and then it becomes then you start supporting it but you don't know what you like if you don't watch it and something has to attract you to like it and so doing all these things like oh that's a familiar face if he's there let me peek at it let me just check it out and if you check it out you're like oh you know what i do like this you know when does the show come on when the next time they in town i got the kids i got my girlfriend i got this like i got my friends you just you got to pique that interest a little bit just just enough to get people to like something then when they like it enough and they want to see it again then it becomes an investment investment becomes like a group the group becomes a community and the community community becomes a community, and then the community becomes a fandom. And that's slowly but surely how, like, you kind of grow a product.

And it may take two weeks, may take five months, may take three years. But my philosophy, my personal trainer, Niall, shout out to him, he tells me, like, when we started training a year and a half ago, I was like 193. Now I got up to 220. He got me to 215 pounds in three months. He said 1% a day is 365% a year. So just move 1% a day.

In a year, you're going to triple your investment, but you got to just move one bit. And that's my philosophy with everything I do. Music, just get one new fan, just get one new stream. And wrestling, just get one new fan. Just get one guy to buy one shirt, just one. And you know, you just move something forward every single day.

You got this, you dropping sneakers now, right? Yes, yeah, we actually have them. That's why you were at SneakerCon? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so with the, oh, you have them. Oh, I forgot to get you MV size. Yeah, I want to see them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He never texts me back about the size. We brought them in. Last brought the big pressures right here. That's my logo. So is this too just a part of, you know, understanding that, like, even fashion as culture connects to things? Absolutely.

Okay, it's fine. Yeah, and that's what it's about. Like, it's still light. Very. These are the shoes I literally won the world championship in. They kind of look like Jordans. Okay, it's fine. Yeah, and that's what it's about. It's still light. Very. These are the shoes I literally won the world championship in. They kind of look like Jordans. Is that on purpose? It's a vibe.

We got Mosh. I designed it, and then I had Mosh make it. Shout out to Mosh. He's a legendary sneaker designer. Yeah, he's designed shoes and put them in like. His ass dope. He's designed shoes for like Stefan Diggs. He wears on the field and stuff.

Like Curry. Like LeBron. He's given like these designs and shoes for like step on digs he wears on the field and stuff like curry like lebron he's given like these designs and shoes and mixed them all up but i'm the first wrestler to have his own brand shoe wow okay yeah what's up that's why i didn't text you that's that's what that's literally why i forgot to text you i don't think you should text another man asking the shoe size this is an 11 you know as I was texting you. I'm a 10. I'm going to leave my pair with all the, you know. Oh, so you got your size.

That's an 11. He need a 10. Oh. So I'm bigger than you. Oh, wow. Fat man school, what?

Okay, okay. What'd he say? He said he's bigger than you. So, Emery, we got Vegas Jones sneakers up there,

NLE Chapel. You said fat man school. I said Fat Joe. Oh, Fat Joe. Okay, okay, okay. That's a huge honor to be up there with these guys. I was at Rolling Loud when Ali Chopper did the... Drop those.

Drop the shoes and the song. Dope. Well, how can they order these? Oh, we're going to be dropping a link very soon, but Amash is going to have... It's going to be lit. We have like 70 pairs. How did the sneaker con world embrace them um it's it's still new and it's fresh because it's like this is like a all-purpose shoe it's like you can play basketball

you can dance in them you can wear them as fashion i've literally like had multiple matches on pay-per-views and tv and main evented with these shoes and they had like the most comfortable shoe i've ever had and i've wrestled 15 years they are like the most comfortable shoe I've ever had. And I've wrestled them 15 years. It's probably the most comfortable footwear I've ever had in a ring. So we're gonna start bringing them out more cause we had to get like branding. We had to get the trademarks and logos.

We had to like do a sample then bring it back. You know, how the production works, but now it's ready. And how much are they for people that wanna buy them? How can they buy them if they want? It's going to be $250, and we're going to be bringing them out slowly, one by one, like by a link. And we're going to drop that link very, very soon.

So be ready. And when the link drops, as soon as you click on Make the Order, it's coming to you. You know, I want to ask you one more question. How big of an influence is Shawn Michaels on you? Huge. Growing up, watching him, I had to go back and look at his tapes from, like, his prime years.

But he was huge. And still to this day, like, he'll text me, like, happy birthday, happy Father's Day. I'll text him back happy Father's Day and stuff like that. We still have a good uh a good relationship um he was the influence on when i really took off in my wwe nxt era because i was just like stuck in like hitting this wall over and over again weekly and like i was having these conversations with triple h i was getting this run around i wasn't really getting anywhere then i got a um a promotion one day and i was just like not happy about it i was like i don't feel like i earned the promotion i feel like you're just paying me to keep me here rather than like paying

what i earned you know and so like i spoke out about it i was like i want to be um learning under sean it's like well yada yada yada uh matt bloom was like saying yada yada yada whatever uh but his office over there i'm like oh bet i walked over to Sean I was like hey can we can we do tape study I didn't know you could do that me neither but I was like but like but that's those little unwritten rules that's like it's there but it's like oh I could just do this why am I not but there's no rule saying you can't but there's no rule saying you can there's no there's no push to give you that you got to find it within yourself to be like you know I am good enough well let me take that leap and worst case scenario I'm right back to be like, you know, I am good enough. Let me take that leap. And worst case scenario, I'm right back to square one where I was.

So I just took the leap. I was like, Sean, can I watch tape with you sometime, like an hour? So I'm like, give me three matches, email them to me, and I'll pick one and we can watch it on Tuesday. Sure enough, he lived up to his word. We watched a match of me on the Indies from like four years ago. He's like, I want to see the reason you got here here what's the reason that we signed you to this contract to be here i want to watch that so we watched these stuff and he's like he's quiet just watching

watching and like guys like that they're not gonna oh no they're just gonna watch like william regal is very much like that too and And he's just like, match was over. He stopped. He's like, I know exactly the kind of performer you are now. Now I know who you are. Now I know what you can offer. Next thing you know, he's in meetings talking about TV the night before. And he's texting me.

He's like, okay, they want to see you get a little more aggressive and stuff like that. So bring it next match. I'm like, that's it? That's all I got to do? Next match, beating the hell out of me and bronson reeve going back and forth he comes back and he was like it was like a football coach after the match he was like smacking my ass like that's what i'm talking about there you go yeah so i was like yeah i got that from sean next thing you know

north american championship match happened next thing you know tv i'm getting the microphone to talk now live i get to show my personality more because anybody can just be a wrestler but show who you are and be comfortable on the camera to really like flash your stuff like I'm wearing I'm wearing like t-shirts that aren't even AWW approved I'm wearing like

my friend's shirt from back in the day I'm like I don't know I'm getting away with this I'm going to try some more stuff when you get like that you get like that, you get comfortable. Then when you're comfortable, the crowd's comfortable. Right. And when the crowd's comfortable, the crowd's having fun. And then they're having fun with you.

Now it's a vibe. It's like a concert, a comedy show. If the comedian's having fun and joking, I'm comfortable enough to laugh with this guy, the stranger. I'm comfortable enough to get loud, yell back, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to open them up like that. And that's where I really start opening up. guy the stranger i'm comfortable enough to get loud yell back hey yeah yeah yeah you gotta open them up like that and when that's where i really start opening up and that's what got me ready for

aw to do it in stadiums weekly in the arenas it got me to do it with black audiences white audiences in canada got me doing in uk got me to do it in like all these other places now it's like I can just own a room and be comfortable in it not like that feeling of like anxiety because I can overtake it but now like I shut that down and I'm zoned in so but all that started from those tape studies with Sean the reason I love that is because you know a lot of times folks will just be like uh either they're not gonna give me no mentorship or yeah you know they're not going to give me no mentorship. They're not going to want to talk to me, but close mouth don't get fed. Just the fact you went in, hollered at him,

he was willing to share the information. And I think he respected the fact that I looked him dead in the eye as a man. I was like, I want to get better because I know I can. If you're coaching a football team, you want to put people on the field that you that know they can win that you don't want people that are like i don't know you hire and that translates to regular life you don't want to hire the uh the the plumber that's like i might be able to fix your toilet i I'm kind of, but I don't know. No, I'm like, I'm the best plumber in the freaking

Western Hemisphere and south of the Mississippi. You want people that know that they can do the job. And if you know that you can do the job, you're going to pay them whatever price because I need it done. I need it done well, and I need it done fast, right now. All right, it's going to cost you, though, but it will be done. You know what?

Here's a tip. That's market value. Swerve, strictly. Ladies and gentlemen. That's right. We appreciate you for joining us this morning. At Swerve Confident on all social media platforms, man. Myself, Flash, Garments.

We got the Motion Sickness album out that has the Big Pressure Trill remix with Bun B and West Side Gun on there with Who Kid hosting the entire album. Let's play it. Play it, please. For the love of God. Play that. You got a clean version, Crestbowl? Let's play it. Not to mention the night at Grand Slam, man.

Grand Slam Arthur Ashe Stadium this Wednesday. What's going on? Well, it's Swerve Strickland. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.