It can’t be anybody from the locker room. I have to go through outsourcing to get some new, you know, teammates. But it has to be something that’s like, you look at it, it’s something you didn’t know is what you wanted, but now that you see it, it’s like, man, how did we not see this?

And some people who, in the end, you want to, like, shake the doubt of the people that already like going to have negativity towards it, like, ‘Man, it’s not Big E. It’s not Big E.’

And shout out Big E. I can never replace a Big E. But we can do something new that moves forward instead of looking backwards.

And that’s why New Level, the track and stuff like that. All these things just hit at the right time, at the right place, with the right people to, like, put a shockwave into the energy of the wrestling world all in at one encapsulating time.”

Now it’s like, you can go viral and be on TV or get a contract just from going viral. So the grind to travel all over the place—it’s not that I’m saying it’s not warranted. You still need it as a performer.

I think everybody’s getting contracts before they master their craft first. You’re killing their growth.

That’s why I’m saying, before you get the audience, the likes, the clicks, the retweets—You’ve got to hone in on your craft first because as quick as you get it is as quick as you’ll lose it if you’re not good enough and experienced enough to keep carrying it.

Master the craft first. Get good at it. Then take on the world and try to get your name out there. Hone in first.”

So going over 25 minutes with him in the main event, taking him out at the end the way that I did, it sparked a lot of noise throughout the industry. It sparked a lot of noise throughout AEW.

That also woke up Nana in a lot of ways. In a lot of different ways, I’m able to navigate and move through AEW the way that I want to. The way I’m meant to, I would say.”

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.”

So that group is starting to change. Like John Cena just retired, AJ Styles retired, and those were the top earners. The Undertaker can’t really go anymore. So that pyramid is starting to get really pointy and small at the top.

If I compare the two, Tony Khan owns AEW. He’s also part owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C. in the UK. He treats the roster more like athletes. There are player-coaches in the organization, system coaches—he’s a player’s booker. He’s in tune with his talent and his roster and where to put those guys.

He utilizes people really well. It’s like a scheme on a football team. Me and him gel very, very well because he knows my strengths. He knows where I belong and how to use all his players the right way. Because of that, he knows how to pay them too and motivate them in certain ways.

And we’re only in year seven of the company, which is a very small window for a wrestling promotion as big as we are. We did 80,000 seats at Wembley Stadium and filled it. We did 30,000 at Globe Life Field this past summer.

We’re about to go back to Wembley again, and we’re about to run Crypto.com Arena in two weeks in LA, which is already around 10,000 seats filled. So we moved very fast and grew very quickly because of his mindset about expanding and putting together a great roster.

Negotiating with him was literally like negotiating as an athlete, and I’d never had that experience before. So I’m very much set for the next three or four years. After that, I get to decide what I want to do, and I’ll have the leverage I need to move however I want to in life.”

They were supposed to be a product of the hit makers on Evolve at the time. And Triple H—me and him were just going back and forth. He was dodging me when I was coming up with creative questions and stuff.

And then finally, I think it was Stephanie McMahon that really told me, ‘He’s my favorite heel on the show.’ And then that’s where it was like, okay, now we really got to start putting some fire behind Swerve.

And then they were like, ‘Hey, I think we’re going to put this group behind you. How do you feel?’ I didn’t do groups at the time. I was independent, indie jumping from city to city, country to country. So running a group was just not my thing. I didn’t know how to.

But the group became more like them backing me. We became like a jelled group, like all four corners. The time was good. It was fine. I wish we had more time together with it, but you know, things happen.”

I’m pushing myself to be at the top of this game. So I’m not chasing after anybody’s matches. I want those matches to chase after me now. So, I’m happy for AJ and proud of AJ. He’s someone I studied endlessly — him alongside Bryan Danielson and guys like that from that era. Nigel, too. I looked up to those guys and watched them closely.

AJ’s earned more than enough in his career to either walk away from it or continue on and do something different and unique with the generation of guys he’s curated and kind of spawned. His influence really helped shape an AEW style.

So if he wants to take a chance and come over to AEW, which he is more than capable of doing — he’s more than healthy and in great shape mentally, hopefully, and physically from what I can see — to compete with All Elite Wrestling, just know we’re all here, open and waiting if he decides to make that jump.”