Swerve Strickland Discusses The Development Of His AEW Character

Last week on "AEW Dynamite," Swerve Strickland made a shocking (or perhaps not-so-shocking) move by betraying his tag team partner, Keith Lee. With the help of rapper Rick Ross, Strickland seemingly formed a new faction, known as Mogul Affiliates, featuring himself, Ross, Parker Boudreaux, and former minor league baseball player Granden Goetzman. Speaking to "The Root" in the aftermath of his betrayal, Strickland explained the process for formulating his wrestling persona.

"I always survey the playing field of my character, other people's characters, other people's motivations, my motivation, and the situation in the scenario I'm in," Strickland said. "Then that's where I really get to have a lot of fun and manipulate and play with certain things." The AEW star believes part of the reason why he's able to connect with the crowd so well is his ability to improvise and change what he's doing based on their reaction. Strickland also cited a prominent performer outside of professional wrestling as a partial inspiration for his onscreen character.

"I always base my performances on actors who have really strong facial features ... and I kind of take scenes and I recreate them in the ring," Strickland continued. "I'm a big Daniel Day-Lewis fan, so I use a lot of his facials, his voice inflections, his presence on camera. I try to manipulate a lot of those same things and make it my own." Strickland then shared a warning — that he's dangerous, and there will be consequences for anyone that gets in his way.

While Strickland and his new allies are not yet advertised for tonight's "Dynamite" or "AEW Rampage" later this week, it seems likely that the group will appear at some point before 2022 comes to a close to elaborate on their formation and the actions taken by the team last week.