AEW’s Swerve Strickland On The New Day’s WWE Departure: ‘They’re In High Spirits, They’re Motivated, They’re Happy’

WWE/AEW

AEW star Swerve Strickland has commented on the New Day’s WWE departure, and their mentality after speaking with both following the release.

Following WWE’s latest round of talent cuts on April 24, it was announced two days later that four more names had left the company, with the most surprising being Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods of the New Day.

Kofi and Woods had become one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history during their time in the company, with this departure marking the end of a 20 year run in the company for Kingston.

New Day In ‘High Spirits’ Following WWE Departure

Speaking on Bootleg Kev, AEW’s Swerve Strickland was asked about the New Day’s WWE departure, and how they feel coming out of it.

Swerve said that both Kofi and Xavier are in high spirits and ‘motivated’ after their departure, before talking about how Kofi inspired his own career.

He said:

“I’m honestly happy because that still shows their value, they can say no and still walk out like top 2.

“There’s a lot of wrestlers that want to see them end up in AEW. I spoke to them the same day, Kofi took another day to get back to me, but they’re in high spirits, they’re motivated, they’re happy. They have the ball in their court which is what they always wanted. They have the ball in their court and they honestly feel like they can control their own narrative, and Xavier is really good at that.

“Kofi is walking as a free agent for the first time in his whole career. He was a Hall of Famer like 5/6 years ago, he was a Hall of Famer then, and to add the World Title match on top of that. He’s the only black wrestler to ever win the World Title at Mania, that’s something you can’t take away from him. Never had any negative press on him, never had any issues, suspensions, fines, any of this.

“So he’s walking out a role model to a whole generation of kids. There’s an archetype around Kofi ‘oh that’s the Kofi spot’, the ‘Kofi moment’ in the Rumble, in Money In The Bank, there’s an archetype named after him.

“He inspired me to try and like, not recreate, but KofiMania was something that ‘I hope in my career I can have something close to similar to that’. I was able to win the World Title at Dynasty in 2024, but it’s like, I feel like some of this has to go to Kofi because it’s like, seeing is believing, this isn’t possible unless you see Kofi doing it first, for the world to see that it’s possible.”

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• Swerve Strickland
• AEW
• wwe
• New Day
• kofi kingston
• Xavier Woods

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