During Sunday night’s AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2024 pay-per-view event, Swerve Strickland defeated Will Ospreay to retain the AEW World Championship in the main event.
Jim Jones of Dipset made a special appearance to introduce Strickland before his AEW World Title defense against Ospreay at the UBS Arena in Long Island, NY.
During the post-AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door media scrum, Strickland reacted to Jones’ appearance at the event. He said,
“Jim Jones came through because of my man, Albert Gentily over there. He’s been a huge part of the transition to becoming a true mogul in this industry. He was responsible for Kevin Gates with the tag championship celebration, Rick Ross coming through, and Fabulous coming through. He’s been responsible for so many other things, even outside of just the interviews I’ve been doing, like media on Hot 97 and all these other things. There’s a lot of motion with that guy, Flash Garments, once again responsible for a lot of these connections and how it’s being presented on stage. How I’m going to look, what I’m going to wear, how I’m going to say it, what’s going to be the selling point of things—it’s all very meticulous, and everything’s pointed in the right direction.”
Strickland added, ”My man G training my choreography, fight choreography, and my reflexes, getting my skills sharper than they’ve ever been before at my age. It’s just like a team of guys always working together to present what Swerve is. Swerve is more than just me; it’s everybody. Nana over here, part of Swerve, Heck over there, part of Swerve, Fitted over here, part of Swerve—all my guys, all my people, it’s all Swerve. Jim Jones came out, and it was like that. That’s the culture in the main event of 11,000 seats, sold out in Long Island. It’s always about presenting the culture in a way that’s authentic to myself and authentic to the fans. It’s not pandering.”
