57 Facts About Swerve Strickland

Swerve Strickland is signed to All Elite Wrestling, where he performs under the ring name Swerve Strickland.

Swerve Strickland is a former AEW World Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion.

Swerve Strickland began his career in 2008, working as Shane Swerve Strickland for several independent promotions until 2019, including Major League Wrestling, Evolve Wrestling, and Combat Zone Wrestling, winning the respective main titles of these promotions, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, Evolve Championship, and CZW World Heavyweight Championship.

From 2014 until 2018, Swerve Strickland performed in Lucha Underground as a masked wrestler named Killshot.

Swerve Strickland formed a tag team with Keith Lee, winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship once.

Stephon Swerve Strickland was born in Tacoma, Washington, on September 30,1990.

Swerve Strickland's father, who was a sergeant first class cook in the United States Army, moved the family to Germany when Strickland was two months old to live on an American military base in Frankfurt.

Swerve Strickland spent the first seven years of his life in Germany.

The family later returned to the United States and settled in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where Swerve Strickland attended Donegal High School.

Swerve Strickland danced in talent shows and excelled in football, basketball, and track and field.

Shortly after graduating high school, Swerve Strickland felt the need to follow in his father's footsteps and enlisted in the United States Army Reserve at the age of 17.

Swerve Strickland was then stationed in York, Pennsylvania, where he served as a 25U Signal Support Systems Specialist for eight years.

Swerve Strickland decided to become a professional wrestler when he was 18 years old.

Swerve Strickland began training at Ground Xero Wrestling Training Academy in August 2008, doing so while still serving in the United States Army Reserve.

Swerve Strickland soon began getting bookings around the Maryland and Pennsylvania areas.

Swerve Strickland had Army Reserve commitments in York, Pennsylvania, which obliged him to wrestle only in that general area's independent circuit in the early years of his career.

In September 2011, Swerve Strickland made his first appearance with the National Wrestling Alliance, losing to Phil Brown.

Swerve Strickland would go to debut for World Xtreme Wrestling in a six-man match on September 15,2012.

Swerve Strickland made his Combat Zone Wrestling debut on February 4,2012, in a dark match.

On March 10,2012, at Aerial Assault, Swerve Strickland participated in the main event, a Best Of The Best 11 Qualifying Aerial Assault Elimination Match won by Samuray del Sol.

At Best of the Best 12, Swerve Strickland participated in the Best of the Best tournament, but he was defeated in the first round by Alex Colon.

On September 14,2013, at Down with the Sickness, Swerve Strickland participated in the main event a Chris Cash Memorial Fatal 4 Way Ladder match for the CZW Wired TV Championship, but the match was won by Colon.

On March 8,2014, at High Stakes, Swerve Strickland defeated the CZW Wired Champion Devon Moore to win the title for the first time.

At Best of the Best XIII, Swerve Strickland retained the title against Moore in a Ladder match.

At Dojo Wars 6, Swerve Strickland lost the title against Gacy.

However, Swerve Strickland regained the title two weeks later at Dojo Wars 7.

In October 2014, Swerve Strickland participated in the World Triangle Tournament, a tournament held by Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling and Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.

In 2016, Swerve Strickland had an acclaimed series of matches with Dezmond Xavier and in the 2017 Best of the Best tournament, he made it to the finals before losing to Dave Crist.

Page then challenged both men to a Cage Of Death match for the title, which Swerve Strickland was unsuccessful at winning.

On May 5,2012, Swerve Strickland made his debut for Evolve Wrestling, where he teamed with Latin Dragon to defeat DMC and Nate Carter.

Swerve Strickland wrestled NXT's Kassius Ohno at Evolve 116 on November 10,2018, in a losing effort.

Swerve Strickland faced JD Drake at Evolve 126 for the WWN Championship in a match he lost.

In 2016, Swerve Strickland made his debut in Germany for Westside Xtreme Wrestling, taking part in the 16 Carat Gold tournament and later their World Tag Team League, which he won alongside David Starr.

On March 23,2019, Swerve Strickland competed for The Crash Lucha Libre in fatal-4-way for The Crash Cruiserweight Championship.

Swerve Strickland won the PCW Ultra Light Heavyweight Championship on March 26,2018.

Swerve Strickland finished the year with successful defenses against Dragon Lee, Flip Gordon, Rey Horus and Darby Allin, among others.

Swerve Strickland would vacate the Light Heavyweight Championship shortly after, and he defended the Ultra Heavyweight Championship at their A2K19 event on January 18,2019, against Brian Cage.

On March 9,2019, Swerve Strickland gave a farewell speech at a DEFY Wrestling event, indicating he will soon be signing with a major company.

Swerve Strickland participated in El Rey Network professional wrestling television series Lucha Underground.

Swerve Strickland became a central character on Lucha Underground, as one of a small group of characters to appear in every season.

On October 5,2017, Swerve Strickland debuted in the main event of Major League Wrestling's 2017 rebirth show One Shot by defeating Ricochet.

Swerve Strickland lost the title to wrestler Low Ki after Strickland had a few successful defenses, with his reign lasting 91 days.

On episode 32 of MLW's weekly program MLW Fusion, Swerve Strickland faced Low Ki in rematch for the Heavyweight title.

Swerve Strickland mentioned owner Court Bauer and blamed management for his bad luck as of late.

Swerve Strickland proceeded to throw trash at the MLW employees that were confronting him, he fliped off one of them and hopped the rail into the audience and left.

Swerve Strickland opened the show with a heel promo disparaging the fans and the city until he was interrupted by Rush.

On January 15,2019, Swerve Strickland stated on Twitter that he was now a free agent.

On February 13,2022, Swerve Strickland made his return to DEFY Wrestling after three years, confronting Darby Allin and Nick Wayne.

Swerve Strickland made an appearance at the House of Glory event High Intensity on July 26,2024, defeating Amazing Red.

Swerve Strickland feuded with Lee until March 2023, when he and Boudreaux lost to Lee and Dustin Rhodes.

Swerve Strickland berated Page, claiming that if we was given the same opportunities as him, he would be the "first black AEW World Champion".

Swerve Strickland stated that telling people to avoid watching the match would have the opposite effect, and compared it to telling children not to go and see "a new insane horror movie".

Swerve Strickland participated in the first Continental Classic tournament, where he finished joint top of his block with 12 points, allowing him to advance to the semifinal round.

At Dynasty, Swerve Strickland defeated Samoa Joe to capture the AEW World Championship.

Page proceeded to burn down the house as Swerve Strickland watched in horror.

Later in the show, Swerve Strickland attacked reigning champion Jon Moxley after his successful title defense.

Swerve Strickland is the cousin of former NFL linebacker Fred Strickland.