AEW World Heavyweight Champion Swerve Strickland is scheduled to face Will Ospreay at an AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door event. Swerve recently guested on the “Drinks With Johnny” podcast and discussed his journey in wrestling and initially being skeptical about it as a career choice. He confessed,
“I never truly believed wrestling was going to be my career. I initiated something and wanted to observe how far I could push myself or how much I could actually excel in something like pro wrestling. That’s when I truly understood what passion is. Passion signifies loving something that doesn’t reciprocate your love, but you continue regardless.”
Continuing on, he said, “Initiating in wrestling was not easy, it defeated me repeatedly and there were times when I felt that I offer so much but receive nothing in return. Adding to this, people around me would question me about why I didn’t quit. The questions were along the lines of ‘Why persist? What is the point of this? Oh, you aim to be a pro wrestler? Sure, as you say.’ Regardless of the skepticism, I continued pursuing wrestling because I felt a strange allure towards it.”
Greg Gagne also guest discussed various topics on the “Busted Open Radio” podcast recently, such as Hulk Hogan’s entry in the AWA, why the AWA became defunct and more.
Here are a few highlights from the podcast:
Discussing first impressions of Hulk Hogan: “I wrestled at an event in New York where Hogan also wrestled; the match was quite disappointing. After the match, I suggested to Hogan that he needs guidance and should consider coming to the AWA. I then went and advised my dad to bring Hogan to the AWA since he showed great potential, despite being poor at wrestling and not very good at interviews.”
Gagne’s take on Hogan as a fan favourite: “Johnny Valiant was appointed as his manager to help with the interviews… but the audience didn’t respond in a way we had anticipated. They began cheering for Hogan instead. I went back and pointed out ‘You can’t make him a villain, he’s a hero for the audience. They adore him.'”
On AWA’s breakdown: “Discussing this is painful as it was extremely frustrating. These promoters all knew each other and had mutual trust. Deals were done on a handshake. Verne helped The McMahons a lot by giving them talent and vice versa, but individual egos got in the way.”
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