Tony Khan: Swerve Strickland Has Been a Phenomenal Signing for AEW, He Has Still So Much in Front of Him in His Career

Tony Khan opens up about Swerve Strickland in All Elite Wrestling.

While speaking with Dirt Sheet Radio, Tony Khan was asked about signing talents like Swerve Strickland and Timeless Toni Storm who have become massive key factors for All Elite Wrestling since getting into their grooves. This is what Khan had to say.

“Well, those are two great examples. I think Swerve Strickland was a tremendous young wrestler who I’d seen on TV. I thought he was excellent. And as I got to know him, I think he’s been a phenomenal signing for AEW. He’s a former world champion, former world tag team champion. He’s accomplished so much, and he has so much still in front of him in his career. Swerve Strickland was a great wrestler, and I was excited to bring him to AEW. Then also, you mentioned Timeless Toni Storm as somebody that signed as a free agent here. Timeless Toni Storm is just so fantastic. She is known now as Timeless Toni Storm. She arrived with a great reputation as a worldwide phenomenon, Toni Storm, this really exciting young wrestler who’d been all over the world. And she built this great reputation. But I saw something in Toni Storm that was totally different than any wrestler I’ve worked with. And she had a presence that I felt was more like Bette Davis or a character like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. But Toni’s so young and just such a young, charming, powerful young lady. For me, I thought there would be a great opportunity to tell some stories, to work with our partners at Turner Classic Movies. You were on TBS tomorrow for Title Tuesday, and we do wrestling every week on TBS and TNT. But this brought TCM into the situation. I love old movies. I asked Toni Storm a long time ago, ‘have you ever seen Sunset Boulevard or All About Eve in particular’, and she had not. She really has come so far. But this is all things that were really inside of Toni Storm, I believe, the whole time. She had this presence and she’s unlocked it and I think it’s phenomenal. I’m really proud she’s been able to find it. I’ve had the fortune to have a few good ideas over the years in wrestling. I think one of them certainly was introducing Toni Storm to classic films like when I thought about that a couple of years ago and who would have thought it would take the turn it has and Timeless Toni Storm is one of the greatest wrestlers ever in AEW. Toni Storm is a great free agent signing, and then Timeless Toni Storm took it to a whole nother’ level as one of our best stars ever.”

Strickland is currently on the sidelines as he recovers from a meniscus injury that has been nagging him for a couple of years.

(h/t to Fightful for the quotes/transcriptions.)

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