As the IMPACT World Champion, Rich Swann hopes to be an example for countless people and prove that anything is possible.
Swann recently appeared on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, and he discussed his prominence as an African American world champion.
“Being a champion of culture, you know what I mean, I just wanna show that anybody can do it,” said Swann. “And just being from my upbringing, people would look at somebody as myself and think that I would have never gotten to something like this, and I just want to be an example to somebody, you know, not only that would live in my situation and kids of African American descent or Spanish, Hispanic, white kids, it doesn’t matter, I wanna show the world that we can all do this together and that’s my message. You know what I mean, and stop diversifying everybody [and] come together….”
Swann also discussed his role in the crossover between IMPACT Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling. He described this storyline as a major progression for IMPACT Wrestling, and he stated that he hopes to capitalize on the opportunity.
“[I’m] in the thick of things,” said Swann. “You know, I totally feel like the momentum changed, like as soon as Don Callis made that announcement, after Kenny Omega, who’s been revered in the professional wrestling industry for quite some time now, who’s looked at as one of the greatest. Once they made that announcement, that they were gonna come to IMPACT, everybody said wait, what? You know what I mean?
“You could feel the change, and as you can see the progression with myself and the Machine Guns, when we all came together and it was gonna form that crazy six-man, and it changed a little bit, but that was the buzz of the wrestling universe for a bit. I’m grateful to be a part of something like that, and I just want to show out as hard as I can.”
The full video is available here:
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