Swerve Strickland knows some fans aren’t ready to accept him alongside Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed. The new AEW World Trios Champion has now made one thing clear—he isn’t trying to replace Big E.
Speaking with Black Couch Booking, Swerve discussed how New Level came together and the reaction the group received following its AEW debut. Swerve said his new partners needed to be people from outside the existing AEW locker room. He wanted something fresh that fans didn’t realize they wanted until they saw it happen.
“It has to be something that you look at and it’s something you didn’t know is what you wanted, but now that you see it, it’s like, ‘Man, how did we not see this?’”
The arrival of Kingston and Creed immediately sparked comparisons to The New Day. Some fans questioned how Swerve could fit beside them without Big E, but Swerve shut down the idea that he was attempting to take Big E’s spot.
“Some people are going to have negativity toward it, like, ‘Man, it’s not Big E. It’s not Big E.’ And shout-out Big E. I can never replace a Big E. But we can do something new that moves forward instead of looking backwards.”
That distinction is important to Swerve. New Level isn’t being presented as a replacement version of The New Day. It gives Kingston and Creed a chance to build something different with Swerve after entering AEW. Swerve said the group, its music and its AEW All In debut all came together at exactly the right time. He believes the combination gave New Level the impact it needed to immediately shake up the wrestling business.
“That’s why the New Level song with Third and Future on the track and stuff like that—all these things just hit at the right time, at the right place, with the right people to put a shockwave into the energy of the wrestling world, all in at one encapsulating time. And I was like, ‘That’s the only way I could do something like that. These are the guys to do it with.’”
Swerve, Kingston and Creed wasted no time proving that the pairing could work, capturing the AEW World Trios Championship at All In. Swerve isn’t running from their history with Big E, but he also has no interest in copying it. New Level is moving ahead on its own terms.
Do you think Swerve Strickland is the right partner for Kofi Kingston and Austin Creed in New Level? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
