Why Swerve Strickland Says WWE Should Not Have 'Pushed The Button' On Him 2 Years Ago

AEW's Swerve Strickland believes he wasn't ready for a push one or two years ago, but is now primed to be a world champion.

The former WWE star was a recent guest on "Notsam Wrestling," where he explained why WWE was right to not pull the trigger on him.

"Like I saw this earlier, they were like, 'They [WWE] should have pushed the button on him a year ago or two years ago.' I'm like, 'No, they shouldn't have.' I'll admit that," said the AEW star. "No, it wasn't my time. Once again, it goes back to Shawn's quote, they were like, I didn't handle this, in this position at that time. Now at a later time, I would've probably handled it better. But, now I know where I'm good at, now I know where my position lies, and I can handle that, I can excel at this."

He believes he would've been a different performer if WWE had pulled the trigger on him earlier, and that people wouldn't have been afraid of his character like they are now. Strickland added that he is now ready to be the world champion as he feels that his character needed building earlier.

Strickland recently declared his desire to be the first black AEW World Champion and stated he would've been the champ if he had the same opportunities as his opponent, "Hangman" Adam Page. He discussed that particular comment, arguing that it wasn't about race-baiting but of pride.

"Yeah, it is [about race]. So? It's not about race-baiting, it's about pride," said Strickland. "It's culture. Why can a heel have pride in this culture? Why can someone who's doing bad things have pride in that? If anything, the people who do it the worst have the most pride because we're fighting way more."

His Texas Deathmatch against Adam Page won over many people, including AEW star Matt Hardy, who recently endorsed Strickland to become the AEW World Champion in the future.