Welcome to the AEW Full Gear 2024 PPVPreview presented by GrapPro.com
We will be previewing all matches from the pay per view this week.
To find all AEW Full 2024 PPVPreview’s click here.
To find AEW Full Gear 2023 Predictions and Preview click here.
Swerve Strickland versus Bobby Lashley
Could you imagine if movie fans acted like pro wrestling fans when it came to wrestlers from one promotion working for another?
“I’m tired of all of these old Lionsgate actors. What about the A24 Originals?”
I just sometimes think that’s funny. Now in sports it sometimes happens. I know in the National Hockey League there was once upon a time where teams trading for former Edmonton Oilers was so common it became a trope. But usually it’s a good thing to get the best players from your rival. The New York Yankees won a World Series with Johnny Damon. Made him shave his face to do it too.
World Wrestling Entertainment loves people from All Elite Wrestling. They go nuts for them. Cody Rhodes. CM Punk. Jade Cargill. Brian Pillman Jr. Ethan Page. Shawn Spears. WWE watched every episode of AEW Dark to grab people who worked the shows.
It used to be cool for AEW to get people who were stars in the WWE. All In 2021 was a cavalcade of former WWE stars coming to AEW. It was a big, “We’re here” moment for the company. When people talk about Restoring the Feeling? It’s about those four months in 2021 when everyone wanted to work for AEW.
Now? It’s a curse. It’s an anchor. Coming from WWE is a stigma. And you have to work hard to fight that stigma. You can thank the likes of Miro, Malakai Black, Andrade, and others for this. You can thank the disappointing runs of the Hardy Boys or the former WWE guys who now do podcasts who make AEW their favourite topic to gripe about.
AEW fans want their originals focused on instead of fed trash.
Unless… you win over those fans.
Swerve Strickland won over the fans.
To be honest? Swerve was barely a WWE guy. He was on NXT for a little bit and got his WWE call up and there was a lot of attention on Hit Row because it was the first time in a long time something in WWE felt fresh. But Swerve for me was Killshot from Lucha Underground. Swerve signed with WWE just as All Elite Wrestling was being announced. I think if timing was a little different he would have come to AEW instead.
Strickland spent the 2010s making a name for himself and developing on the U.S. indies no different than his contemporaries. Calling him a WWE guy would be a depressing label. But he was a WWE guy coming to AEW when he signed in 2022, entering with Keith Lee (another indie wrestler of the 2010s to signed to WWE only to have a disappointing run) and immediately making a statement.
Strickland developed in AEW. He put on muscle. He refined his personality. He became a better promo. He figured out how to mix the offence he used as a light heavyweight believably into a new lethal heavyweight offence. Swerve grew into a main event star in front of All Elite Wrestling eyes. He might not have been down since day one but he’s down now.
So when Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley walk into All Elite Wrestling looking like they already own the place and beat down Swerve Strickland? It isn’t just because Shelton and Bobby don’t belong. It’s because they took out someone AEW accepted.
Shelton Benjamin had spent a career being considered underrated and underutilized. He’s almost 50 but he wrestles better than people 20 years younger than him. He’s also bringing a new heavyweight offence to his style. He’s trying to be different in AEW. This isn’t Gold Standard Shelton Benjamin. This is a new Shelton Benjamin for AEW.
We don’t know yet how Bobby Lashley plans to change. Bobby may have made his debut in WWE and just came from WWE, but I know his work better in TNA Wrestling where he was one of the best champions in the company in the 2010s. Bobby Lashley is an ageless wonder, and while he has yet to wrestle in AEW? He certainly doesn’t look out of place.
I talk about the “othering” of people coming from WWE because the AEW roster is large. There’s a lot of people who want to get opportunities but can’t. There’s main eventers from other companies, main eventers from AEW, who can’t get to the main event anymore due to how crowded things are. But that’s a good thing. Only the strongest survive now. You have to fight for the top spot and do everything you can to hold it. Swerve Strickland did that in 2024. Bobby Lashley looks to do it off the back of Swerve, or rather, by breaking the back of Swerve.
I have loved this program so far. I think it’s second only to the Death Riders, and it’s honestly stronger in some ways. The Hurt Syndicate isn’t some takeover of AEW like the Death Riders are. They are top free agents, top sport athletes, and they want to stay at the top in All Elite Wrestling. They may not feel like part of AEW yet, but I’m sure in 2025 you’ll look back and wonder why you didn’t welcome them better when they came in.
Swerve Strickland needs friends if he wants to survive Lashley, Benjamin, and MVP after Full Gear.
