Swerve Strickland compared himself to the Marvel villain from Black Panther.
Strickland has been performing well in All Elite Wrestling as of late, recently picking up a huge win over former AEW Champion “The Executioner” Adam Page at WrestleDream.
In a recent interview with Fightful’s Grapsody, the leader of the Mughal Embassy compared himself to Killmonger from Marvel’s Black Panther franchise.
The character, played in the film by actor Michael B. Jordan, is popular among Marvel fans, despite the fact that he is not a typical hero in its purest form. Strickland makes comparisons, believing that fans buy his work despite his heel-based personality:
“I give them a different feeling. I almost see myself as Killmonger.
You know he does bad things in the movie, but you will gravitate towards him or be horrified by him, his actions. It’s just a feeling.”
Swerve Strickland could become AEW World Champion within 18 months
Strickland’s momentum hasn’t gone unnoticed among his peers, with former ECW Champion Matt Hardy recently revealing on his podcast The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy that he believes a shot at the AEW World Championship is in the offing:
“I think he’s a guy that deserves a great spot in AEW and should be built around that guy and allow him to be one of the building blocks of the company.
I think he has a great look, I think he has a great personality. Overall he’s just a good guy. He is very reliable. I think this is a very important part. If you have someone who has a lot of talent, but behind the scenes he’s giving you a headache, or he’s just dissatisfied, or he’s unhappy, sometimes it becomes problematic if you try to invest a lot of capital or make this guy one of the building blocks of your company, but Swerve is an all-around great guy, a good dude.
Also, the fact that he is black helps too because now, especially in these days of fairness and equality, it is very important that we have as many different faces and different looking personalities as possible so that we can get the best opportunities. and he’s a guy who totally deserves it.
“I think if he continues on the trajectory he’s on now, in a year and a half he has a great chance of becoming the AEW World Champion.”
H/T: Fighting for the above transcription.