AEW: Swerve Strickland on AEW Locker Room Morale Being Excellent, Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata Set for Sat. Collision Show, More News

Feb 9, 2024

Swerve Strickland Comments on Current Locker Room Morale in AEW Being Excellent

A recent episode of the Smooth Vega podcast featured Swerve Strickland as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Strickland’s thoughts about the current morale within AEW’s locker room being excellent.

“Morale has been excellent. I haven’t seen any issues. I haven’t seen issues when morale was said to be down. I had a good time, the people I worked with had a great time. Name a work place that doesn’t have people having issues with what’s going on at their job in their position. People want to get better and move up the card. People want to get more TV time and to be the champion. People want a match with him or a match with her. That’s everywhere.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata Announced for Sat. AEW Collision Show

AEW CEO Tony Khan recently announced one new official match for the card of AEW’s Collision show on February 10th in Henderson, Nevada.

This new match announced was a singles match of Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata.

This Saturday@TheDLCHenderson near Las Vegas#AEWCollision
8pm ET/7pm CT on @TNTdrama @AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm vs Queen Aminata

Ahead of her #AEWRevolution title match vs #1 ranked @DeonnaPurrazzo, the champ collides vs rising star @amisylle SATURDAY! pic.twitter.com/ASLjzootJl
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) February 9, 2024

Current card for February 10th AEW Collision show:

AEW International Championship – Tomohiro Ishii vs. Orange Cassidy (c)
Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Team CMLL (Esfinge & Star Jr.)
Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata

AEW News & Notes

Disney recently announced that they have renewed their Percy Jackson and the Olympians series on Disney+ for a second season. This television series featured Adam Copeland among the cast.

AEW Games recently announced that the next DLC pack for their AEW Fight Forever video game is called Swerve to the Beach and features Swerve Strickland joining the game’s playable roster. It was also announced that this upcoming DLC pack will be released on February 14th for Xbox One and Series X/S, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch, and PC.

Max Caster recently announced that The Acclaimed will be holding a pop-up meet & greet and food truck event on February 7 in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

In a recent interview with Daily Star, Anna Jay gave her thoughts about if she had any regrets over the way the Jericho Appreciation Society group ended in AEW. Jay stated “For sure. With me joining JAS, there were a lot of unanswered questions and not really a closure to that chapter. I’m not really sure exactly why, but of course, I wish there could have been something. Whether it had been, it still ended the way it did, but some answers or something to show that there was an end to the chapter. I don’t know why we didn’t do that, but one day it would be cool to have some sort of reunion. I don’t know what that would mean or how that would be. It will never be the same, but I think that might be something cool to do one day.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Adrian Hernandez, Claudio Castagnoli gave his thoughts about what makes Jon Moxley special in AEW. Castagnoli stated “Hey, I’m nobody’s dad, right, that’s Christian’s role in AEW. Here’s the beauty about Jon Moxley. Mox is gonna do what Mox is gonna do, and that’s him, and that’s awesome. That’s what makes him so special. He is so, he’s like John Wayne. He’s like James Dean. He’s just that cool guy. He’s just cool. No matter what he does, he can just come in and wear whatever and you’re just like, ‘Yeah, that guy’s cool.’ I don’t know, that’s just my impression of him. So hey, if he wants to use a fork, I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m on your team [laughs].” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with KTAR, Saraya gave her thoughts about the debut of a Women’s Tag Team Championship being the next big step for AEW’s Women’s Division. Saraya stated “AEW is doing really well putting multiple female matches on the shows. We can keep doing that. We can start building the division even bigger. Introduce female tag team championships. Right now, we have two championships. We can do tag teams. There are tag teams there. We can build the division as something huge and something just as big as the guys. The guys have the trios championships, the tag championships. They have all these championships, and it would be just really nice, as women, if we could have just an extra one. I’m not saying we should be overloaded with championships, it’d be too much at that point, but adding a tag championship could spice things up in the division and gives a lot of the women something to chase other than the two championships.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about how he has been enjoying his time working in commentary for AEW’s Collision shows. Schiavone stated “Lot of excitement about [AEW Revolution]. Yes, the shows have been good. Really, I really think that Collision has been great. It has been. They’ve been great shows, and I’m just really excited about, after we do the shows, I’m thinking that was a damn good show. Not saying overall it’s a better show than Dynamite, but at times, it is a better show. Some weeks, it is a better show. In the natural course of things, it happens like that, and some weeks, Dynamite’s a better show. But I’ve been very, very happy about Collision. I really enjoy working with Kevin Kelly and Nigel, I really do. We’ve really developed a friendship, and we get along with each other, and because I do a lot of the announcing on Collision, I really do that much backstage at Collision. Tony [Tony Khan] told me, ‘Just be an announcer on those days.’ So I kind of go back and stay in the announcers’ room the entire day without running around, being a pain in the ass like I normally am. So those are good days. I really enjoy Saturday.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Sports Guys Talk Wrestling podcast, Dustin Rhodes gave his thoughts about his current career in AEW. Rhodes stated “I’m proud of myself for still hanging in there and doing what I can to elevate these youngins and to make the next set of superstars for AEW to actually get their chance to shine because we have some amazing young talent. If I can help in any way, I’m there, absolutely. I love that Tony gives me the opportunities that he does. I get a lot more nervous now, in the last five years I guess, since I turned 50. When I go out, it is nerve-racking because I cannot afford to go out there and mess up. I don’t want to mess up. If I do, people are going to see that and say, ‘Oh, he needs to retire.’ That’s something that really bothers me. I have to go stay on top and keep working hard. I’ve been training my ass off and making sure that I don’t stumble in that ring. Listen, everybody does, but right now, I’m just focusing on whatever my next time is and what I have to do to get through that and try to put on a good show and entertain the fans like I always have. It’s very humbling for me and I love it. Without the fans, it would just be empty arenas and that’s no fun. We need them there every single time.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

A recent episode of The Shinning Wizards podcast featured Iron Savages’ Boulder as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Boulder’s thoughts about Tony Khan’s initial reaction to the crowd chanting “titty city” in support of the Iron Savages at a recent ROH TV taping. Boulder stated “Another time was when we really started doing the ‘titty city’ thing, it was the first time a big ‘titty city’ chant broke out in the crowd and the agent for our match goes, ‘Oh my God, they’re chanting titties.’ We were told this after our match and then Tony (Khan), Tony thought the crowd was chanting ‘meat’. But the agent goes, ‘No. I think they’re chanting titties’ and Tony, he’s like listening more and then he smacks the agent on the shoulder and goes, ‘Oh my God! They’re screaming titties!’” Boulder also revealed that MJF was the person who recomended for J.T. Davidson to be their manager during his and Bronson’s change from Bear Country to Iron Savages. Boulder stated “So actually, when Iron Savages first came along, we were kind of still just doing the same thing as Bear Country but we had a manager. It was… God… Yeah, J.T. Davidson. He came at the recommendation of MJF and his nickname was The Iron Manager so I guess it was an idea by the office that, alright, this is The Iron Manager. We’re gonna call his guys the Iron Savages, and we just showed up to a dark taping one day and we saw ‘Iron Savages’ on the board and we didn’t know who it was, and I’m like, ‘Could that be us? I don’t know. Who are these guys?’ And then we later found out it was us. Our manager, J.T. Davidson, he was having some pretty serious health issues and he had to step away from wrestling. So when that happened, we were like, ‘Oh, well, okay, what do we do now?’ We were just kind of in limbo for like a month or two and actually, the idea for the gym bro gimmick with the Iron Savages was actually an idea of Q.T. Marshall.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)