It seems like fans might be learning a lesson about wrestling booking when it comes to the in-ring misfortunes of former MLW World Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion Swerve Strickland.
Fans Are Not Pleased with the Handling of Swerve Strickland in AEW
Strickland was brought up to WWE’s main roster as a part of the Hit Row faction in May 2021. By that November, he was released along with the rest of the faction. The 32-year-old was a hot free agent at the time and AEW scooped him a month after it signed fellow NXT and main roster superstar Keith Lee in March 2022.
Success came early for the Swerve in Our Glory tandem of Swerve and Keith Lee. In July, they won the AEW World Tag Team title. That team broke up at that year’s Full Gear after failing to regain the titles from The Acclaimed.
Since December 2022, Swerve Strickland has been the centerpiece wrestler in Mogul Affiliates—later called Mogul Embassy. He’s been kept in the mix of AEW but it appears that vocal fans aren’t feeling his progression so far. After losing on the latest AEW Dynamite, fans took to social media and voiced their disapproval.
There are layers to this one. First, there’s the feeling that Swerve is extremely talented and has a lot of upside. Because of this and because the match was for Orange Cassidy’s AEW International title, there’s also the feeling that Swerve Strickland should’ve won the belt. After his loss, his group’s attempt to finish Cassidy was halted by Sting and Darby Allin.
So, Swerve didn’t even get a measure of get back and walked away with two goose eggs. Fans were annoyed by this to the point of asking Triple H to get him back in the company. The thing is that the match was very exciting and worth watching. It’s not as if he lost on a mid match.
Also, just because they are your fave doesn’t mean that they must win or that the company is mishandling the superstar. They can come out looking awesome in defeat. Let’s say Swerve Strickland did win the AEW International title—what more do the fans want out of the company: 34 successful defenses?
In trying to appease the fans, AEW will learn that it never ends and it will have multiple honeymoon periods with the fans where they’re pleased with the booking. The important thing is to not make it a regular thing of doing what the fans want all the time. AEW makes its money as a wrestling company and not as a community fantasy booking service.
What do you think of AEW’s booking of Swerve Strickland a little over a year into his time with company? Would you have had Swerve win the title? Let us know down below.
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