WWE Veteran Congratulates Swerve Strickland on AEW World Championship Win

R-Truth gave flowers to the new AEW Champion.

By Liam Crowley

Swerve Strickland is the new AEW World Champion. Swerve defeated Samoa Joe at AEW Dynasty to capture the prize, becoming just the eighth unique AEW World Champion in the title's five-year history. The victory capped off what has been a red-hot couple of months for the 33-year-old wrestler, as he began to experience his first true singles surge in Fall 2023 during his feud with "Hangman" Adam Page. That bloody rivalry quickly became the centerpiece feud of All Elite Wrestling, and Swerve's definitive win in it led him to standing alone as No.1 Contender for the AEW World Championship and eventually winning the prize itself.

WWE Veteran Praises Swerve Strickland

SWERVE-STRICKLAND-WWE-AEW-R-TRUTH
(Photo: WWE, AEW)

That AEW Dynasty victory has been felt far and wide across the professional wrestling industry, with talent from every promotion under the sun sending flowers to the new AEW World Champion, including WWE World Tag Team Champion R-Truth.

"I get emotional. It's a prestigious honor," R-Truth told Battleground Podcast. " I want to congratulate Swerve. I definitely have to congratulate him man on his achievement, his accomplishment."

Truth added that he had "meant to call" Swerve after AEW Dynasty but has not gotten around to it yet.

"He's been killing it for a while. He's so talented, man, so humble. [He's] so well-deserving of what he's doing now," R-Truth continued. "You're just seeing the beginning of him."

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While Truth and Swerve have never mixed it up in the ring, they did both fall under the WWE umbrella from 2019 until 2021. Swerve spent most of his time in NXT and occasionally competed in the cruiserweight division's now-extinct 205 Live show. During this time, Truth was a member of the WWE main roster, competing on both WWE Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown, typically chasing the 24/7 Championship. 

Swerve was released from WWE in November 2021 and took his talents to AEW immediately after his 90-day no-compete clause expired. It didn't take long for him to find success, as he won the AEW World Tag Team Titles alongside Keith Lee just a couple months after his debut and captured the AEW World Championship under two years after that. Truth remains with WWE to this day and is currently enjoying a career resurgence of sorts, competing as one-half of the WWE World Tag Team Champions alongside tag partner The Miz.

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