Swerve Strickland Reacts To Criticism Of AEW Full Gear Blood Spot

At AEW Full Gear, Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page wrestled a brutal Texas Death Match that at one point even involved Page drinking Strickland’s blood. That spot, and the match as a whole, have proven controversial, but in an interview with TMZ Sports, Strickland said he welcomes the complaints from people who felt he and Page went too far.

“Whoever has anything to complain about it, feel free,” Strickland told TMZ. “Complain, I implore you. It’s not a good thing to do. I don’t implore anybody to do anything like that. But the fact that it was done, it makes people [go], ‘I don’t believe you. I gotta go see this for myself.'”

The former AEW World Tag Team Champion believes he and Hangman put on a show that fans can’t find anywhere else. He also said  competing with WWE will mean that AEW will need to take risks like the display that he and Page put on, as it helps give the company an identity.

“We pushed boundaries. That’s what AEW was built on,” Strickland said. “Pushing boundaries, doing things that other places just couldn’t do, or are not able to do. You’re not able to see that anywhere else …

That was the pinnacle of what AEW was like. That’s what we do. We are excellent at what we do.”

The Texas Death Match was the talk of the wrestling world following AEW Full Gear, with former WWE Writer Freddie Prinze Jr. referring to it as the grossest match he’d ever seen.