The Latest On Swerve Strickland's Recovery Timeline And AEW Return

Swerve Strickland is drawing closer to a return to his house.

The former AEW World Champion has been out of action ever since he underwent a procedure to fix a torn meniscus back in August. Swerve had actually been dealing with the issue dating back to his days in WWE, but it finally got to the point where he needed to get it corrected.

Strickland last competed at AEW & NJPW Forbidden Door, where he came up short in his bid to win the Unified Championship from Kazuchika Okada. A post-match attack by the returning Wardlow was orchestrated to write him off of television for several months. Unfortunately, Wardlow suffered a torn pectoral muscle during the angle and he will miss significant time away from the ring himself.

While there is still no strict timeline for Swerve's AEW comeback, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported Wednesday night that his return could be relatively soon.

"The optimistic hope was that Swerve Strickland could be ready for a “winter return” to AEW action. This is of course, barring any set backs," Ross Sapp wrote in his report.

"There were rumors that originally Swerve was going to take some time off after All In, which ended up happening a little bit later. Swerve recently posted a photo of him in the recording studio with Raekwon.

Getting Swerve back would a major boost to All Elite Wrestling

AEW has had to deal with a number of major injuries this year. Will Ospreay, Adam Cole and Switchblade Jay White are all going to be on the sidelines for quite sometime, and in Cole's case, his latest concussion has left the former TNT Champion with more questions than answers when it comes to his in-ring future.

"[He's] nowhere near returning the last time I checked," Sean Ross Sapp said during a Q&A session with Fightful Select subscribers this week. "I don't want to get into his private health stuff, but he knew he was going to face issues dealing with this concussion, and he has."

Then there's the very strange case of Andrade, which is a horse of an entirely different color. The former WWE Superstar re-debuted with All Elite Wrestling earlier this month and then promptly vanished due to an unforeseen non-compete issue.

Just when @KennyOmegamanX was getting sentimental, @AndradeElIdolo attacks!

Watch #AEWDynamite’s 6th Anniversary LIVE on TBS & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/mZ0O77V6HJ
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) October 2, 2025

AEW President Tony Khan has been able to bolster his roster in recent weeks with Orange Cassidy, Eddie Kingston, Hook and PAC all returning to television.

When asked about Swerve ahead of last Saturday's WrestleDream pay-pay-view, Khan expressed optimism that Strickland would be back in the mix "relatively soon."

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