Former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho has known for a long time that Swerve Strickland was destined for greatness.
At the inaugural Dynasty pay-per-view on April 21st, Swerve Strickland defeated Samoa Joe to become the new World Champion. Along with this being the first World Championship reign for Strickland, he also made history by becoming the first African American champion for the promotion.
At a post-show celebration dinner, Jericho gave a speech to praise Strickland’s achievement and added that he would have made him World Champion sooner:
“The most important thing about wrestling is character, charisma, persona and the X-factor, the cool factor. He had it from the start, and he’s a great worker and on top of that he is a big thinker. He thinks outside of wrestling. He just performed at Rolling Loud which is f*cking crazy that you got on that bill. It’s amazing and it reminds me of early Fozzy. It’s because he is a hustler, an entertainer and he’s great at what he does. I knew about 6 months ago this was our guy. I would have done it 2 months earlier, armchair booking, but it worked out great.”
Jericho continued, referencing that a World Title change in All Elite Wrestling is extremely rare and only happens when the company knows it is the right time to do it, and Jericho believes it is the right time:
“We don’t change the titles to the World Title very often unless it’s the absolute right guy. He is the right guy for the job, he’s got the cool X-factor and if I was the big wig in AEW, maybe I am, I would put you on every other f*cking talk show, I’d promote you in every single way because you have what we need which is the ability to cross over in the mainstream and I’m super proud of you, man.
I knew you had it since day one. A lot of guys have it and aren’t able to make it happen, but you did. Now it’s your time and I would push you to the f*cking limit until the cows come home and I am going to do my best to make sure that happens.”
Recently Swerve Strickland spoke about offering a AEW World Title match to the returning MJF.
Swerve Strickland Elaborates On Inspiration Behind Historic AEW Win
Following the victory at Dynasty, Strickland appeared at the post-show press conference to discuss his historic victory. When asked what kept him motivated in an industry where there have been very few African American World Champions, Swerve Strickland referenced another historic victory that took place in WWE.
In a new interview since becoming champion, Swerve Strickland addressed Grayson Waller’s comments.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit the source and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.