Swerve Strickland does not believe that WWE and AEW will hold a joint event while he is alive. In an interview published on Wednesday by Billboard, he pointed to control, marketing and the need to protect the top names of the two companies as the obstacles to a possible supershow.
The position stands out because it is much more pessimistic than the one Strickland had a little over two years ago. In May 2024, on Bootleg Kev, when he believed that a joint event had a good chance of happening.
When explaining his change in perspective, Strickland said.
“No. Not in my lifetime at least. It’s control. It’s all about marketing. It’s like the NFL, WWE has to protect their shield. There’s no way they’d allow any of our wrestlers to look better and be better [than them]. Obi Femi is a world beater. You gotta protect that and make sure he keeps looking good. Gunther, have to protect that. Roman [Reigns], have to protect that. Cody [Rhodes], have to protect, even more so because of AEW. There’s a lot of that happening.”
He considers that the problem gets even bigger when the women’s divisions and dream matches like Seth Rollins against Will Ospreay come into play.
“When it gets to the women, then that’s even tougher. Rhea [Ripley], Liv [Morgan], Chelsea [Green] all have to be protected. You wanna see Seth [Rollins] and Ospreay. That’s the generational thing, but who do you protect? Who has the leverage? Us in the locker room, we just wanna have these matches. I’m good friends with Carmelo [Hayes], Jevon [Evans] and Oba. Those are my boys. I love those guys. I don’t care who wins. Double DQs. I don’t care.”
The problem shows up in the booking. Rollins against Ospreay sells the idea on its own, but someone needs to win. For two companies that compete for attention, talent and position in the market, deciding who comes out on top is much more complicated than putting together the card.
Tony Khan himself has already presented a similar version. In July 2024, on The Rich Eisen Show, the AEW president said that he would love to do a supershow with WWE, but acknowledged that there are “a lot of challenging business things” that make the idea difficult.