AEW’s Swerve Strickland Recalls Cody Rhodes Conversation After PWI 500 List Released

AEW/WWE

Former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland has recalled a text conversation with Cody Rhodes after the 2024 PWI 500 list was published.

In September 2024, Pro Wrestling Illustrated published their annual top 500 male wrestlers list, with Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes taking top spot.

Second place on the list went to AEW’s Swerve Strickland, who at the time was fresh off the end of his first-ever run as AEW World Champion which lasted 126 days.

Speaking to Vlad TV, Strickland recalled a text conversation he had with Rhodes after the list was published, saying:

“I’m still friends with him. When [the list] came out, I texted him, I was like, I missed you by one, you son of a bitch.’ [Laughs]

“He texts me back, he’s like, ‘Honestly, dude, you should have been one.’ That’s the competition we have between, it’s a good one. I was like, ‘Ah, I wanted to beat you so bad.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’”

Rounding out the top five behind Rhodes and Strickland was Will Ospreay in third, followed by Seth Rollins in fourth and NJPW’s Tetsuya Naito in fifth.

Both Strickland and Rhodes are set for huge world title matches at their respective companies next big events, with Cody defending the Undisputed WWE Championship against John Cena at WrestleMania 41 and Strickland challenging Jon Moxley for the AEW World Title at AEW Dynasty 2025.

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Transcript via Fightful

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• Swerve Strickland
• PWI 500
• Cody Rhodes
• AEW
• wwe

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