Swerve Strickland

Stephon Strickland (born September 30, 1990) is an American professional wrestler and rapper.

He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Swerve Strickland and is the leader of Mogul Embassy.

Stephon Strickland was born in Tacoma, Washington, on September 30, 1990.

His father, who was a sergeant first class cook in the United States Army, moved the family to Germany when Strickland was two months old to live on an American military base in Frankfurt.

Strickland spent the first seven years of his life in Germany.

The family later returned to the United States and settled in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, where Strickland attended Donegal High School.

He danced in talent shows and excelled in football, basketball, and track and field.

Shortly after leaving high school, Strickland felt the need to follow in his father's footsteps and enlisted in the United States Army Reserve at the age of 17.

He carried out his United States Army Basic Training in South Carolina, then underwent 22 weeks of Advanced Individual Training at Fort Eisenhower in Augusta, Georgia.

He was then stationed in York, Pennsylvania, where he served as a 25U Signal Support Systems Specialist for eight years.

Strickland began his career on 2008, working as Shane Strickland for several independent promotions until 2019, including Major League Wrestling Evolve Wrestling, and Combat Zone Wrestling, winning the main titles of these promotions, the MLW World Championship, Evolve Championship and CZW World Heavyweight Championship.

He began training at Ground Xero (Zero) Wrestling Training Academy in August 2008, doing so while still active duty with the United States Army Reserve.

He soon began getting bookings around the Maryland and Pennsylvania areas.

He had Army Reserve commitments in York, Pennsylvania, which obliged him to wrestle only in that general area's independent circuit in the early years of his career.

In September 2011, Strickland made his first appearance with the National Wrestling Alliance, losing to Phil Brown.

In March 2012, he defeated Alex Payne in his debut for East Coast Wrestling Association.

He would go to debut for World Xtreme Wrestling in a six-man match on September 15, 2012.

Strickland made his Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) debut on February 4, 2012, in a dark match.

On March 10, 2012, at Aerial Assault, Strickland participated in the main event, a Best Of The Best 11 Qualifying Aerial Assault Elimination Match won by Samuray del Sol.

On November 10, 2012, at Night of Infamy 11, Strickland participated in a CZW Wired TV Open Challenge, but was defeated by the champion A. R. Fox.

At Best of the Best 12, Strickland participated in the Best of the Best tournament, but he was defeated in the first round by Alex Colon.

On September 14, 2013, at Down with the Sickness, Strickland participated in the main event a Chris Cash Memorial Fatal 4 Way Ladder match for the CZW Wired TV Championship, but the match was won by Colon.

At Cage of Death XV, Colon defeated Strickland in a title match.

From 2014 and 2018, Strickland also worked for El Rey lucha libre based TV Series Lucha Underground, where he performed as a masked wrestler named Killshot.

On March 8, 2014, at High Stakes, Strickland defeated the CZW Wired Champion Devon Moore to win the title for the first time.

At Best of the Best XIII, Strickland retained the title against Moore in a Ladder match.

Then, Strickland started a feud with Joe Gacy.

At Dojo Wars 6, Strickland lost the title against Gacy.

However, Strickland regained the title two weeks later at Dojo Wars 7.

In October 2014, Strickland participated in the World Triangle Tournament, a tournament held by Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling and Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Strickland ended with 3 point in the Block B. Finally, at Cage of Death XVI, Gacy defeated Strickland for the title.

He left the Army Reserve in 2015.

Strickland decided to become a professional wrestler when he was 18 years old.

After a lengthy absence in which he wrestled for WXW in Germany, Strickland made a one-time appearance in 2015 in a victory over David Starr.

In 2016, Strickland had an acclaimed series of matches with Dezmond Xavier and in the 2017 Best of the Best tournament, he made it to the finals before losing to Dave Crist.

In 2019, he signed a development contract with WWE, where he worked as Isaiah "Swerve" Scott.

He stayed on the developmental brand NXT as part of Hit Row stable, winning the NXT North American Championship, but soon after he made his main roster debut at SmackDown, he was released.

After his WWE release, he changed his name to Swerve Strickland and signed with AEW.

He formed a tag team with Keith Lee, winning the AEW World Tag Team Championship.

After turning on Lee, Strickland became the leader of the Mogul Embassy stable.