AEW Star Roderick Strong Opens Up About Opportunity Afforded By Neck Brace

It's been almost a year since Roderick Strong made his surprise debut in AEW siding with Adam Cole during his feud with Chris Jericho. One thing that Strong has become known for during his time in AEW is being "neck strong." After his match with Samoa Joe in the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, Strong was forced into a wheelchair and had to wear a neck brace due to his injuries, but it became clear that those injuries were only minor despite what Strong would have people believe.

During a recent interview with Alicia Atout, he revealed that he loved wearing the neck brace as it added another dimension to his character. 

"It made it fun, it honestly made it like extremely fun," Strong said. "I've always wrestled and performed and wanted myself to be out there, but within this, it gave me an opportunity to become ... use part of me but become something else. That was something that I was really having a hard time figuring out, and this whole situation created an opportunity for me to grow as a performer." 

Strong credited his commitment to wearing the neck brace at all times to his old-school mentality as he got into wrestling when everyone took things seriously. He even admitted he wore the neck brace nearly every day when AEW traveled to London for All In in 2023, and wore it while out with his son. 

"When we were over there for Wembley, it's just like every single thing I did because I just knew," Strong said. "Even when I would go to take my son to jiujitsu, depending on what day of the week it was, I would just wear it because you never know." 

The neck brace is now a thing of the past for Strong as he gets ready to challenge Orange Cassidy for the AEW International Championship at Revolution on March 3.

Please credit Alicia Atout when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.