AEW star Shane “Swerve” Strickland talked about his time in WWE including his work in NXT 2.0 while doing an interview with the Getting Over: Wrestling Podcast.
Strickland held the North American Title and found success while part of Hit Row. During the podcast, he was asked about his relationship with Triple H and how he thinks Triple H focused on his core talent more than other wrestlers in NXT.
“I feel like he liked me and he respects my talent and my ability. But I don’t feel like he ever truly bought in and invested until I made him have to with Hit Row,” Strickland said. “He’s one of those guys like, he has those talents on the show that he knows and he’s well-acquainted with and it’s hard for him to deviate from those guys. When he’s set on someone, he’s set on them. Anybody who says that he doesn’t, like, I wouldn’t call it picking favorites, but if somebody says he doesn’t have his core guys, you’re one of the core guys. You know what I mean?
“They’re like ‘what do you mean, he’s great’. I’m like ‘no sh-t.’ But there’s a lot of like, to this day I feel like he missed out on Matt Riddle being a world champion because he was focused on core guys. I feel like there was times he missed out on a Bianca Belair because he was focused on his core girls. You know, there’s a lot of missed opportunities with certain areas because he was so focused on certain people and you kind of have to because he’s running a product that, on a weekly product, you kind of want to go to your go-getters. You know, your guaranteed guys.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcription
