Maybe it’s true what they say about not knowing what you have ’til it’s gone. At least when it comes to Swerve Strickland and WWE.
One of the hot topics as of late within the pro wrestling rumor mill has been buzz about WWE possibly sending feelers to AEW wrestlers who used to be with the company about returning. The thought was that now that the new creative team headed by Paul “Triple H” Levesque is fully settled in and talent seems happier, perhaps the issues that made some ex-WWE performers want to leave in the first place would be gone and they’d be open to heading back.
So far the identity of any wrestlers who might fall into this category has been mostly fodder for speculation, but Fightful Select has come through and confirmed one name.
We can confirm that Swerve Strickland was contacted by WWE, but referred them to his attorney, and had no interest in returning to the company at the time. We were given the indication that he was contacted as a part of the reformed Hit Row pitch.
Reaching out to Swerve about a Hit Row reunion makes sense as the group was elevated to the main roster in recent weeks, and Swerve (as Swerve Scott) was a big part of Hit Row’s initial success in NXT. But it’s not surprising that he would want to stay in AEW, where he’s found a more prominent spot on the roster teaming with Keith Lee, as the duo only recently dropped the AEW World Tag Team Championship.
(Fightful also said WWE hadn’t contacted Lee, so there apparently was no interest in bringing them back as a package deal.)
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This feels like a situation where all involved may benefit from just maintaining the status quo, as Strickland is a popular pick to break out in the near future in AEW as a singles competitor, and Hit Row appears to be settling in nicely on SmackDown.
Other than FTR, who was part of an earlier round of reports about possible WWE discussions, other AEW names are still in the rumor column at this point, so expect to hear a bunch more debate about contract tampering, informed and otherwise, for the foreseeable future.