AEW Full Gear saw Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page meet in a hellacious Texas Death Match that drew both praise and criticism for how violent it was.
During a recent interview with Sam Roberts of Notsam Wrestling, Strickland addressed the negative reaction, noting that they knew their limit.
“Coming from death match world and seeing CZW and stuff like that on a monthly and almost bi-weekly basis and stuff, I’ve seen syringes go through people’s mouths,” Strickland recalled. “I’ve seen a bed of nine-inch nails, ripped off soda cans like Christmas ornaments. I’ve seen some wild stuff. But I know how extreme that is to the common viewer of wrestling.
“I know there’s a limit to take it. Once you cross that limit, you can’t go back. We could go further, I could go further, but I know this is a fresh company. If we go beyond that, it’s like, ‘All right, we’ve seen it.’ It’s almost like you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. So once this takes somebody out, it’s like, ‘How does this get them evacuated? How do we take them out, like what leaves someone off the TV screen for three months? What debilitates someone on camera?’
“We’re really cautious about how far this really goes and really conscious of the brutality and the type of brutality. It wasn’t just beating someone’s brains in for the sake of it. No, this was warranted. I’m a bad person who did a bad thing, and this person wants to get back at them for crossing a line at a personal level to get back at the bad things they did. So a lot of people are like, ‘That’s a good guy doing this, that’s a babyface.’ No, those are two men fighting each other because one wronged the other and one is justified for getting their wrong back.”
While Page did seek redemption by any means possible, he ultimately came up short when Strickland made him pass out.
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If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Notsam Wrestling with a h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.
