In their feud, Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page felt compelled to eliminate many Wrestling Stereotypes

Freddie Prinze, Jr. interviewed Swerve Strickland for his “Wrestling with Freddie” podcast. Swerve has just won an impressive win over Dustin Rhodes at the Worlds End pay-per view and seems to be on track to challenge against Freddie Prinze, Jr. for an World Title in 2024.

Swerve Strickland about his dispute and fight with Adam Page:

“We began with a goal. What is the reason I would like to elevate it to this height? What is the reason we would like to make it higher? It’s like an elevated terror in the sense that you are drawing the broad canvas. There are high points. We’ve needed to get rid of a lot of wrestling slang, in a way. It’s not as if, ‘Oh you’re the good guy but he’s actually doing that. He’s the villain. He’s responsible for that.’ This is like, no it’s a man who wants to take revenge on someone else who has done a wrong. Then we start by saying and then boom, that’s it. Now, what are the elements that make a person tick? What is the trigger that drives the anger of someone in a defensive mode? What triggers the anger of those who are on the offensive? What are the key switches that can turn things around? This is the appeal of starting the whole affair with the promotional videos of me and Hangman Page. I dressed him up and exposed all his flaws. I put everything on display. He has been seen for four years at AEW and now, people were thinking, ‘Wow! I feel like I’ve met him right now.’ I contacted him and then thought I’m not sure what to say. I’m seeing everything. No one is talking about it. I’m going to say it to you in front of your face. I’m not going to say it on stage and then show you in the arena. I’m not doing it in a promotional that’s on here, and then I’m in the ring. But, I’m going speak directly to you because Swerve isn’t afraid to speak up. Swerve will come to you and tell you. This is what makes me a danger to you. I’m not hiding. I’m going tell your face. The thing is that the majority of WWE slang phrases are”Oh, man, you’ve said that in front of your face.’ Then the promo is over and the wrestlers leave. I’m thinking, why would you ever leave somebody? No way. You’re saying these things. What do I mean?”

“It’s like as a human being, you kind of feel a lot of the things and so therefore when the violence started occurring, you felt for the person taking the violence and the person inflicting it and therefore instead of just seeing two wrestlers bludgeoning each other, it didn’t feel like a match anymore. It felt like somebody has to try to survive this, so how does he get away from this?”

“I kind of took a lot of things from, like, Hostile. I took some things from Halloween like walking through pain because you’re just so enraged and stuff like that. There were a lot of things I would say, with Hangman, he was like, this is like our Ghost Rider now. If you notice he kind of went from like the cowboy wearing the nice stars and the dazzle jeans and now he’s like, we were so polar opposite from the first promo we did. He’s wearing a blue cowboy shirt with stars and he had his hair in a ponytail man bun and stuff like that. By the time we got to the second promo where he dresses me down, he looks more like me now. We’re more similar than ever. I’m wearing black leather and black pants. He’s wearing black leather and black pants. His hair is out. I was like, I pulled that out of you so I won as the bad person anyway. Whether I win or lose, I got the Hangman that I was asking for. I got Cowboy Shit back and now the fans are feeling that. The fan base was supposed to feel for Swerve. It was like, oh man, this guy is cool. You’re supposed to feel for me, but Hangman has to win the fans back. That was the entire plot of this whole thing, and by the time we did that promo right before going into the Texas death match, he won the fans back.”

Swerve Strickland about what Adam Copeland and Terry Taylor helped him build his personality and promotes.

“(Adam Copeland) has been my mentor I would say for the last two or years. I credit two people for this. Definitely, Adam Copeland for promos and characters and stuff like that because we share content like sending each other YouTube videos and breakdowns of characters and what this color means of this suit. Why did he wear it this way? What this means, like the polarities of certain characters and all those things. So we share content like that all the time, but then it was Terry Taylor who really taught me how to be in the ring, how to bring that in the ring and showcase the person. You have to showcase that you’re a person and the feel of it before it gets to just action and fighting and moves and spots and running and jumping and diving and stuff. Like, okay, cool. You did that. Now show me how your character feels about what you just did. Now show the camera how you feel about what you just accomplished. It’s kind of like small little tidbits, but after a while, it adds up. Then you do it again the next week. Then you do it again the next week. Then do it again the next week. Then you do it again next week. Now the fan base is connected to you because they see, like, ‘Oh, I feel like that too. Oh, man, I’ve had a feeling like that too. ‘”

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