Swerve Strickland says the violence between characters in wrestling matches “has to be justified”

I felt like me and Hangman Adam Page was very justified, seeing as we pushed boundaries with each other as men, not just characters, but as men. I went into his home, he burned down my house—like, that kind of warrants being dropped on cinder blocks. That warrants the syringe and all the violence.

That’s the connection we’ve had, and once again, all the equity we put in that year to get that far, to push things that far. I feel like it just has to justify the means—the motive, why I’m doing this.

There were callbacks to certain things, like the staple gun. That was stapling the picture of a kid’s painting that I ripped off his refrigerator when I went to his home—it was a callback to those things. Then I stapled my family picture that was in the photos I had for the house, back onto his face.

So it was callbacks for reasons and things like that. It’s all about having a justification for the violence between two characters, and not just doing it for the sake of doing it or trying to top it.”