AEW's Big Swole Recalls Backstage Encounter With Brock Lesnar In WWE

AEW's Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone invited Big Swole on to thethe AEW Unrestricted podcast, where they talked about Swole's life dealing with Crohn's disease, as well as her near-death experiences, like getting struck by lightning. She also talked about how she was introduced to the world of pro wrestling.

"My former step dad introduced me to wrestling when I was younger," Big Swole recalled. "He was like, 'hey, have you ever seen wrestling before?' Here I am. I'm four years old, and I'm like, 'uh, no. What are you talking about?' He puts on WCW. I think it was Glacier match. I was like, 'this is awesome. This is great. I can yell at the TV. I get to fight a little bit inside the house and practice my moves on my step brother Deron.'

"It was right up my alley because I was a huge tomboy already at four. I was hooked. I was flipping channels back and forth through the war. 'Just simply amazing. I want to do this when I get older. This is great. I want to see it live.'"

Big Swole talked about her interactions with legendary wrestlers like Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan while living in Clearwater, FL. She said she was told by now-Hulk's ex-wife Linda Hogan to not be a pro wrestler and to not marry a pro wrestler. Big Swole is currently married to WWE Superstar Cedric Alexander, and she revealed the advice he specifically gave her when she decided to become a pro wrestler.

"I was 22. I was grown and thought I could do whatever I wanted," Big Swole remarked. "I just got out of the Air Force and working at Gamestop just as a holiday hire. I was like, 'you know what? I really want to wrestle,' and I started dating my boyfriend/now husband, Cedric.

"I told him, 'babe, I want to wrestle,' and he literally sat me down. He was like, 'OK, if you're gonna do this Aerial, you need to be a wrestler. I don't want to hear this whole you're a women's wrestler. You're a female wrestler. No, you're a wrestler, and you need to have that heart and that drive. You're gonna do this. There is no quitting for you. You will retire as a wrestler.' It was amazing. It made me sit back and go through, like, this is what I'm going to do. He kept me on that straight and narrow pretty much."

Big Swole had a brief time in WWE as Aerial Monroe where she had a match against Nia Jax on RAW and competed in the Mae Young Classic. She talked about how the opportunity on RAW came about.

"When I got the phone call from my friend Devon Nicole, she's like, 'I need you in Atlanta. Do you want to come with me to be an extra in WWE?' I was like, 'yeah, does a bear s–t in the woods? Bro, I'm coming,'" Big Swole recalled. "We get there, and I'm the smallest one out of the both of us. They're like well, I guess you're gonna be the one wrestling Nia Jax. I'm like OK, cool."

Throughout the podcast, Swole talked about how she's always herself and is never afraid to hold back her personality. She noted that the only people she's afraid of are her Lord and her mother. That philosophy led to an encounter with Brock Lesnar backstage where Swole told Lesnar that she could kick his ass.

"I was just being me the whole entire day, I'm just clowning with people I know and stuff like that," Big Swole explained. "I see Brock Lesnar, and every time he walks past, all the extras, 'hello sir. Hello sir. Hello sir.' Acting like they got some wedgies, acting all stuck up and stuff. I'm like, 'he's just a regular person. Stop bothering this man.'

"So the last person bothers him like, 'thank you so much. I walked up to him like, 'hey, Brock right?' He's like, 'yeah.' I was like, 'I just want to let you know I can whoop your ass.' The fact that I had the balls to say that because I was like, 'I'm gonna make him laugh'. Because obviously, he was so pissed off with everybody stopping him 24/7, and he's like, 'that's funny. What's your name?' I was like, 'oh, I'm Aerial.' He's like, 'oh, OK. I'll remember that. You can whoop my ass?' I was like, 'yeah I can whoop you ass.' He was like, 'OK. OK,' and he walks off."

Swole also talked about her match against Jax where she got a hit on Jax for an unexpected slap in the face. She briefly explained what was going on in that moment.

"I went out there and had a good match," Big Swole said. "Wasn't expecting the slap in the initial part. I gave her a receipt that was not called, because I didn't appreciate anybody hitting me like that on national TV. You're not gonna punk Big Swole. That's what you're not gonna do, so I kicked her right in her face right before she was supposed to do her stuff. I was like, 'hey man, that was a receipt.' She's like, 'I understand.' Boom, went on with the match."

During this time for Swole, Alexander was competing in the Cruiserweight Classic, where an iconic moment from the tournament was when Alexander showed a strong effort against Kota Ibushi and earned a contract live on air. Swole said she ran into Triple H who excitedly told her that story since she was not able to see it, which caused her to have her own moment of Triple H being excited about her then-finance in front of her.

"The second day, Cedric already had his match with Ibushi already," Big Swole noted. "So Trips comes up to me, and he's like, 'thank you so much for doing the business yesterday.' I was like, 'thank you for what you're doing with my family.' He's like, 'oh yeah, you're Cedric's finance,' and I was like, 'yes.' He begins to mark out and tell the whole story about what happened because I told him I wasn't there, and in my head, I'm like, 'would you look at this? Triple H. Now, I've never seen you on TV, and here you are marking out for my man's match. Ain't life grand?' I'm listening, but I'm just like this is crazy. I'm marking out within the mark out."

After that, Swole said she ran into Lesnar again. She says she was ribbed into thinking she would be a security guard that would help hold off Lesnar. She talked about him confronting her about her past remarks.

"It was a good environment. I had fun," Big Swole reflected. "They ribbed me and they told me I was supposed to be the security to make sure Brock wasn't supposed to be there, because it was SmackDown the next day. So of course, I'm like in my heels and stuff, and I'm blowing up. I'm trying to do my job.

"I see Brock come up, and he's like, 'oh, you again? You're the one that was saying you're gonna whoop my ass.' I was like, 'uh, yeah.' He goes, 'so you're supposed to be security? They said you're the one that's supposed to stop me from getting here,' because he was supposed to beat up Randy that day. I looked at him and I was like, 'you ain't seen me. I ain't seen you bro,' and I'm like, 'I'm gone'. I'm gone because I don't want no problems. I'm like, I'm just talking. My Twitter fingers just happened to come out. I'm like, my bad."

Swole's time in the Mae Young Classic was short, having been eliminated in the first round. She said that after the tournament, she was never contacted by WWE, and only AEW called her to sign with them.

"No. After the Mae Young Classic, that was basically it," Big Swole admitted. "I honestly thought that there was gonna be something else after that, but they just never kind of pulled the plug honestly. Until you guys came calling."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.