Stephon Strickland, otherwise known as Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott in WWE, recently posted a few images of himself hanging out with quite a few AEW stars. Included among them were Malakai Black, Sammy Guevara and the ‘Mad King’ himself, Eddie Kingston.
Of course this started quite the wee bit of buzz online, as it well should. Strickland was released by WWE on November 18th shortly after he and his NXT faction, Hit Row, were drafted to SmackDown. All members of the Hit Row faction were released by that date.
Strickland, the 31 year-old pro wrestler, is no stranger to the game, quite obviously. He debuted in 2011 and has since made quite the name for himself in the industry, that name changing over time, but each name, each transformation of his, leaving quite the impression along the way.
A Tacoma, Washington native, Strickland served in the military as a communications specialist, and it was in 2011 that his pro wrestling career got underway, he training and landing his first few pro appearances on the indie circuit and subsequently with Combat Zone Wrestling.
He, of course should also be remembered under the name of Killshot—a character that garnered him quite a bit of attention—his matches were high-octane for sure and delivered in every way. He wrestled as Killshot for Lucha Underground for their 4 seasons of existence, and he left it all out there in the ring every episode he appeared in.
He followed that up with Major League Wrestling, of course making appearances for many of these promotions sporadically interspersed over the years, but it was in 2019 that he would land in NXT making quite the name for himself there as Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott.
via RM Lucha /YouTube
Of course by now his run in WWE speaks for itself, as it should, and it was well documented for all to see, but like so many other epic talents that spent the greater part of three or four years within that company, they were released in the massive amounts of releases made by WWE over the last two years.
Now, as we’ve reported recently and as the months progressed, not everyone can come to AEW. If Tony Khan wishes to pick up all recently released WWE stars, he needs to start thinking about brand extensions and roster segregation, but for right now, his decisions have been spot on…epic talents have been signed…talents that did nothing but elevate the product, no matter what the internet is saying, as Tony Khan himself has stated.
This is proven with the addition of Bryan Danielson, Tony Nese, Malakai Black, CM Punk, Adam Cole, and of course the phenomenal Lio Rush. A star like Strickland would fit in extremely well in that category of wrestlers.
Strickland has the physicality, the look, the conviction and the talent to mix in well with the newer crop of AEW stars and its originals, or even those with slightly more seniority within the company like Cody Rhodes, The Bucks, Omega, Eddie Kingston and that list goes on and on for sure.
And at 31, Strickland’s got quite a wee bit of time to dedicate to quite the impressive AEW career. Hopefully this comes to fruition once his 90-day no-compete clause comes to an end, so start ticking off those dates on your calendars, dear readers.
