Swerve Strickland To Make Third AEW World Championship Defence On Wednesday's Dynamite

Swerve Strickland's first defence of the AEW World Championship came on the April 27th episode of "AEW Collision," when he took on Claudio Castagnoli in the main event six days after winning the title at the Dynasty pay-per-view. His second defence came on May 26th, when he successfully fended off Christian Cage and the rest of The Patriarchy at Double or Nothing 2024. This Wednesday on "AEW Dynamite," Swerve Strickland will defend his title for the third time when he takes on Undisputed Kingdom member and former International Champion Roderick Strong.

The match was made on last night’s episode of "Collision," after Roderick Strong defeated upstart outsider Lio Rush in the show's opening contest. Spotted by cameras backstage alongside The Kingdom after the win, Roderick Strong found himself face-to-face with AEW CEO Tony Khan and new Interim EVP Christopher Daniels. Roderick Strong complained to Tony Khan about barely missing out on participating in the Casino Gauntlet match to determine Swerve Strickland's next challenger on "Dynamite," then appealed to Tony Khan's recent kayfabe neck injury at the hands of the Young Bucks, saying Tony Khan was "Neck Strong." Tony Khan ultimately agreed to Roderick Strong's proposal and agreed to book a world title match between Roderick Strong and Swerve Strickland for this coming Wednesday, effectively jumping Roderick Strong ahead of the man who won the Casino Gauntlet (and took Strong's International title at Double or Nothing), Will Ospreay. Assuming the match goes on last on "Dynamite," it will be just the second broadcast main event of Swerve Strickland's world title reign.

Roderick Strong and Swerve Strickland have only met in the ring three times before (per Cagematch) and only one of those matches was televised, a Roderick Strong victory on the October 9th, 2019 episode of "WWE NXT," back when Swerve Strickland's ring name was Isaiah "Swerve" Scott and AEW was exactly a month away from the very first Full Gear PPV (ironically, Rush had defeated Drew Gulak earlier that night to win the NXT Cruiserweight Championship). Their other two matches both took place at 2019 "NXT" live events; Swerve Strickland has never beaten Roderick Strong, but it's been more than four years since their last encounter. 

Photo Credit: AEW

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