Swerve Strickland Tells Story Of How He Got Triple H's Attention In WWE

Swerve Strickland has become one of AEW's biggest stars over the last two years, and will challenge Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship at AEW Dynasty next week.

His road to the top was far from linear, though. He spent time in WWE NXT trying to find himself and a character that would impress the higher-ups, notably Triple H.

Swerve spoke recently with Vlad TV, and told them while he believed Triple H respected him during his time in NXT, he was never positioned in a way where he could show off over other talent. This, in turn, caused some frustration.

"Triple H is great, but he has a way of wording things in a way that run you around to where you started in the conversation, and I picked up on that, and now I stopped him from running around it again," Swerve said about taking the issue directly to Paul Levesque. "I looked him in his face. I’m like, ‘What’s stopping you?’

"He was like, ‘You know what? Let’s get you with [Johnny] Russo, give him a call, start coming up with some stuff.’ I was like, okay, cool. Because at the time, I tore my meniscus, so I was out for four to six weeks or whatever. So it was like, okay, I’m going to be off TV for a little bit, but when I’m coming back, I’m having a whole change. I didn’t ask. I didn’t go through creative permission. I just did it. I came in the one day, and [William] Regal was like, ‘I like this. I love all this. This is really good.’ He was like, I wish I would have thought about this when I had my career. I was like, ‘Thank you, I appreciate that,'" he said.

As noted, Swerve would form the Hit Row presentation, which would eventually provide him a platform to stand out on NXT and become NXT North American Champion. Swerve gave credit to NXT head Shawn Michaels for helping the powers that be start to see what he brought to the table.

"That happened because Shawn was in the meetings, and we did the tape studies and stuff," Strickland said. "He finally understood who I was and the type of performer I am. So they’re having meetings for TV the night before, and he’s texting me, ‘Okay, Trips is saying he wants to see this out of you. This is what he hasn’t seen yet.’ I’m like, that’s it? But they won’t tell you that. So I’m like, okay cool, bet.

"Me and Bronson Reed, next match, beat the hell out of each other. Boom, boom. He beats me, boom. I come back to the back. I look at Triple H through his eyes, I was like, ‘Am I one of your guys now?’ Straight to his face. He was like, ‘[Laughs], oh yeah.’ I’m like, okay, cool. I walk in, and Shawn just slaps me on the butt like a proud coach. He’s like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about.’ Because it felt like Shawn was rooting for me."

He would go on to say that both Triple H and Shawn Michaels have their preferred talents, and that breakthrough was what helped him ultimately get more screen time.

"They have that. Shawn and Triple H have their talents, they have their guys, and you can see it on the show," he said. 'That’s a Triple H guy, that’s a Shawn guy.' That was where I was kind of weaving into being the Shawn guy. It’s like, okay, now I’m getting there."

H/T Fightful for partial transcript.

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