Swerve Strickland doesn’t see WWE and AEW ever putting their differences aside for a massive crossover show. In fact, he doesn’t believe it’ll happen in his lifetime because there are simply too many top stars both companies would want to protect.
Speaking to Billboard, Swerve was directly asked whether he could ever see WWE and AEW working together for a cross-promotional event. He didn’t dance around the question and immediately shut down the idea.
“No. Not in my lifetime at least.”
For Swerve Strickland, the biggest obstacle isn’t whether the wrestlers would want to do it. He believes it all comes down to control, marketing and WWE protecting the stars it has spent years building.
“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].”
Swerve pointed to Oba Femi as a perfect example. WWE has positioned him as a dominant force, so Swerve doesn’t believe the company would suddenly put him into a crossover situation where that presentation could be compromised.
“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.”
Cody’s situation would obviously bring another wrinkle considering his history with AEW before returning to WWE. Swerve believes those kinds of factors would make figuring out winners and losers a political headache before the wrestlers even got into the ring.
The same problem would exist on the women’s side, and Swerve thinks that could actually be even tougher. WWE would have stars such as Rhea Ripley, Liv Morgan and Chelsea Green that it would want protected while AEW would have its own names in exactly the same position.
“When it gets to the women, then that’s even tougher. Rhea [Ripley], Liv [Morgan], Chelsea [Green] all have to be protected.”
Swerve then brought up one of the biggest hypothetical matches fans could get out of a WWE-AEW crossover: Seth Rollins against Will Ospreay. The match itself would be easy to sell, but deciding who actually wins is where Swerve believes everything starts falling apart.
“You wanna see Seth [Rollins] and Ospreay. That’s the generational thing, but who do you protect? Who has the leverage?”
The funny part is that Swerve says the wrestlers themselves aren’t nearly as concerned about any of that. He revealed that he’s good friends with Carmelo Hayes, Je’Von Evans and Oba Femi and would happily work with them without caring who actually got their hand raised.
“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.”
So while the locker rooms might be willing to make something happen, Swerve believes the business side makes a WWE-AEW supershow nearly impossible. There are plenty of dream matches waiting on paper, but getting two competing promotions to agree on who gets protected could be a much bigger fight than anything happening inside the ring.
What do you think about Swerve Strickland saying a WWE and AEW crossover won’t happen in his lifetime? Let us know in the comments below.
