Swerve Strickland Wants To 'Weaponize Pain' In AEW

Professional wrestling is a unique performance art that blends athleticism, drama, and storytelling. On the latest episode of the "Wrestling Perspective Podcast," AEW's Swerve Strickland discussed his currently brewing rivalry with Dustin Rhodes, and gave insight into how he approaches his character and promo work in the feud. The key, for Strickland, is to find what emotional pain will evoke a reaction from the wrestler and the audience. In this scenario, Cody Rhodes gaining success in WWE and Dustin's mother passing away in January were two things that Swerve knew would irk Dustin.

"Going by the timing, with Dustin, and what's going on with his family and everything, there's a lot of pain there," Swerve said. "And with that being said, pain can be manipulative on the outside, you can take that and weaponize it just like love. Love can be weaponized, and I think that's what cinema is — we weaponize emotions. And especially with seeing where his brother [is headed after the Royal Rumble], I'm like, 'Oh, that's another emotion that we can tap into." The world of film brings heaps of inspiration to Strickland, with actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Philip Seymour Hoffman being two of his most impactful teachers. "It just got to really trickling down to connecting dots at people and targeting pain and weaponizing it and emotion," Strickland said.

Dustin and Strickland began bumping heads on the January 27 edition of "AEW Rampage" after they came face to face during an interview. After a match between Strickland and Brian Pillman Jr. on this past Friday's "Rampage," The Mogul Affiliates beat down Pillman while their captain, Swerve, began wrapping a chain around his hand. Dustin eventually returned to the ring with a turnbuckle to make the save.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Wrestling Perspective" and provide a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.