All Elite Wrestling just hit its third year anniversary and the company has shown growth over time with pay-per-view buys increasing, new television deals being signed, and wrestlers having a viable second option outside of WWE.
The company and owner Tony Khan have experienced growing pains in the first three years, arguably none tougher than coming out of AEW All Out when newly crowned AEW World Champion CM Punk aired his frustrations with Executive Vice Presidents Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Kenny Omega. His comments led to an altercation between the four men. All four men, along with producer Ace Steel, were suspended and the investigation is ongoing.
After the incident, many people questioned Khan's handling of things and wondered if he was "in over his head."
Speaking on Say Less With Kaz, Lowkey and Rosy, Swerve Strickland explained why challenges for Khan and AEW aren't necessarily a bad thing.
"If he is in over his head, if he is, this is speculation on my part, if he is in over his head, good, because he has to be challenged that way. He needs to. He knows he needs to. You don't do a million-dollar gate on a Wednesday night at Arthur Ashe without challenges. You think that's easy? No. He should be going after these challenges. He should be dealing with locker room morale and 'this person wants this, this person wants this' and 'there's friction and things like that.' He has to go through that. If he doesn't, how do we grow? We have to go through growing pains. I don't understand how people think that's just an AEW thing. Vince McMahon has fought people. We've seen these things. That was 20 years in. They almost went bankrupt like how many times? AEW has to face these challenges because they have to grow and evolve. You don't grow and evolve without building Kevlar," he said.
Swerve noted that Khan has taken AEW to new heights in three years while also being part of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham front office.
Swerve also discussed talent having options and the challenges they face as talent comes in and out while others step up.
"We have to take responsibility as performers, in a way as well, because if we put the same reason of why we can't be successful in one place, I'm not talking about anybody specifically, just general, if we put the same responsibility on the promotion and the 'brass ring is not allowing me to breakthrough' and you go over there to a different place, not even AEW, you go to IMPACT, New Japan, wherever you go, and you still can't break through to the brass ring, start looking at yourselves a little bit. I'm not talking about anybody specifically. I'm talking about any male or female performer. Writer, manager, booker, anybody. Guy who works the lighting or the guy behind the camera. If you have issues everywhere you go, get out of the damn field. It's going to be there everywhere you go. There are going to be challenges. I'm sick of the notion of people thinking they can just leave their problems and they can go somewhere else and it's not going to be there. It's entertainment, there are going to be problems. There's a difference where, if you feel like the effort you're putting in, and the energy, and all the work that you're exceeding your payscale or workload or you think you're doing a lot more and you should be compensated for all that, then you should get into free agency, negotiate, start talking to other places. Maybe it'll work out better over there, but when you do that, and you get that compensation, you better work and earn that compensation," he said.
Swerve signed with AEW in March after being released by WWE. He's gone on to win the AEW Tag Team Championships alongside Keith Lee.
Swerve will take on Billy Gunn on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.
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