Swerve Strickland Says Matches With Kenny Omega Were the Validation He Needed

Swerve Strickland has opened up about what his pair of singles bouts with Kenny Omega earlier this year meant to him on a personal level, calling the experience exactly the kind of affirmation he was looking for.

The two crossed paths twice on AEW Dynamite in what became a short but meaningful mini-series between two of the company’s marquee names. Swerve took the first match, but Omega returned the favor in their rematch — a win that earned him an AEW World Championship opportunity at Revolution.

In a conversation with Forbes, Strickland reflected on the series and made clear that competing against Omega at that level carried real significance for him. Without going into the specific wording, the former AEW World Champion conveyed that testing himself against someone of Omega’s caliber confirmed something he already believed about where he stands in the business.

It’s easy to understand why those matches would register that way for Swerve. Omega remains one of the most respected in-ring performers of his generation, and a competitive back-and-forth series with him — one where Swerve scored the first fall — is the kind of run that adds to a career resume. For Strickland, who held the AEW World Championship in 2024, the matches were another data point in an argument he’s been making about his place at the top of the card.

With both men continuing to figure prominently in AEW’s title picture, their rivalry may not be finished yet.