In a new interview with Billboard, AEW star Swerve Strickland was asked if there will ever be a cross-promotional event between WWE and AEW in his lifetime. After answering “no,” Swerve said it’s because WWE will never allow any AEW stars to look better than theirs.
“Why not?
It’s control. It’s all about marketing. It’s like the NFL, WWE has to protect their shield. There’s no way they’d allow any of our wrestlers to look better and be better [than them]. Obi Femi is a world beater. You gotta protect that
and make sure he keeps looking good. Gunther, have to protect that. Roman [Reigns], have to protect that. Cody [Rhodes], have to protect, even more so because of AEW. There’s a lot of that happening.
When it gets to the women, then that’s even tougher. Rhea [Ripley], Liv [Morgan], Chelsea [Green] all have to be protected. You wanna see Seth [Rollins] and Ospreay. That’s the generational thing, but who do you protect? Who has the leverage?”
Swerve is correct, but one key point he fails to address is whether or not AEW would allow WWE stars to look better than theirs. Regardless, the decision-makers in suits may have a problem with putting over stars from another company, but the wrestlers want to wrestle each other, and Swerve doesn’t care who wins and loses.
“Us in the locker room, we just wanna have these matches. I’m good friends with Carmelo [Hayes], Jevon [Evans] and Oba. Those are my boys. I love those guys. I don’t care who wins. Double DQs. I don’t care.”
The fact that Strickland tweeted his support for Oba Femi during WWE’s Money in the Bank PLE earlier this month seems to back up his implication that the war between WWE and AEW is a front office thing much more than a locker room thing.
Do you think Swerve is right on the money about why WWE and AEW will never run a joint event in his lifetime? Or will we get a WWE versus AEW show at some point where every single match ends in a double disqualification? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
