Swerve Strickland Talks AEW Grand Slam Mexico & CMLL Partnership: “We’re Not Here To Take Over Your Company, We’re Here To Be Guests In Your Home”

AEW Grand Slam Mexico is reflected on by the former AEW World Champion.

AEW’s first show at Arena México.

June 18th was the date that All Elite Wrestling collaborated with CMLL to present the Grand Slam Mexico edition of Dynamite.

Coming out of the event, Swerve Strickland, who was part of the main event, appeared on the Battleground Podcast to reflect on the show. He stated that the fans in attendance made it monumental. Strickland also brought up the crowd reaction that Místico received.

“It felt as — honestly, as remarkable as the fans allowed us to feel it, you know what I mean? The fans made it so much more of a big, monumental moment than we even expected it to be. I don’t think any of the performers on the show, who were either a part of All Elite Wrestling or CMLL, were expecting the great reception from the fanbase as we got. They took it over the edge, they made the show so much more enjoyable, from not only just the people in the arena, but it made it enjoyable for the people watching at home that were literally excited and glued to the action, glued to the atmosphere. The fanbase — seeing Místico get the reception that he got, and the match with MJF was unworldly. It made you appreciate the superstars so much more. It made you appreciate the moment that much more and then, just hearing the reception and everybody’s takes and what everybody was saying about the event afterwards after watching and enjoying it, it made us really appreciate being able to perform in the arena that much more because as much as it’s great for us, the performers, how much it means to us, it means that much more for the fans to really appreciate and understand the meaning and the moment that we created with All Elite Wrestling and CMLL doing what we did, you know? Doing the Grand Slam like that.”

Hangman Adam Page got involved in the aftermath of the main event to side with the team Strickland was on against the opposition, which included Hangman’s opponent at All In, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.

Strickland feels Page has always been the right man to challenge for the belt at All In. He stated that Page has always been the main character of AEW and gave him props for cutting the show’s opening promo in Spanish. Strickland feels Hangman’s promo and the event itself showed that AEW was not there to take over CMLL, but rather just be guests in their home.

“Honestly, he (Hangman Adam Page) was the right man for the job regardless if I was going to be World Champion going into All In or it was gonna be Jon Moxley. He was always gonna be the right man. As much as, like, we have the history between me and him as people, more so just competitors, as just man-to-man, he was always the right guy for this whole situation, which is why I went at him in the first place. Nothing about his position in the company has ever changed, and that’s the point that I made when I first went at him after All Out, after he won the Battle Royal, the Charity Battle Royal, and after All Out, on Dynamite, I literally came at him and I said, ‘Dude, why are you in this position? We know who you are and we know who you’re capable of, and if you don’t think you’re good enough for that anymore, move out of the way and I’m gonna take that seat.’ As much as it was me coming at him… as a challenging position, it was me acknowledging the fact that he is that guy, he’s always been that guy, he’s always been the main character of All Elite Wrestling, which is why I came at him in the first place, you know? So him being in the position to open the shows, doing an entire five-minute-plus promo in Spanish in the home country’s language, that shows respect that he has for the fanbase and that also shows that All Elite Wrestling still puts him as the guy to introduce us and to start the show off with that type of — we’re not here to take over your company. We’re here to be guests in your home. We’re being guests in Arena México, we’re being guests of CMLL and we just want you to know we appreciate that and this is the person that’s gonna be the spokesperson to literally do that handshake agreement to begin the show… He’s always been that guy. Regardless of how I feel about it personally… as a competitor, he’s always been that guy and that’s, once again, from day one to day, you know, almost 300 episodes of Dynamite we’re about to have, he’s always been that guy.”

Strickland is going to be in action in his home state of Washington on the 6/21 AEW Collision. He’ll be in a singles match against Shane Taylor.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the Battleground Podcast with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.