Top AEW Star Turns Heel

Published: Feb 19, 2026 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Feb 19, 2026 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

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A top AEW star turned heel following the main event of tonight’s AEW Dynamite show ahead of the Revolution pay-per-view.

In recent weeks, a number of top contenders have emerged, all gunning for the AEW World Championship currently held by MJF.

Among those names are Kenny Omega and Swerve Strickland, with Swerve having taken exception to Kenny’s attempts to re-enter the title picture following his return to AEW television.

This led to Swerve accidentally costing Omega his contenders match with Andrade El Idolo, which led to a face to face promo between the two last week, with the first-ever meeting between the two men taking place in tonight’s Dynamite main event.

As the match went on, Swerve’s struggles to put away Omega grew more and more, with Swerve seemingly pulling referee Aubrey Edwards in the way of a V-Trigger before taking advantage of the referee being knocked out.

Swerve would ultimately pick up the win in the match, before he continued the assault on Omega after the match, including choking him with a chain and driving him through the announce table with a Vertebreaker, turning heel.

Victory secured, statement made, but the disrespect from @swerveconfident continues!

Watch #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/cp7uDCVxZ8

— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) February 19, 2026