Kevin Knight On His Wrestling Inspiration & Swerve Strickland

Kevin Knight On Inspiration Behind Wrestling Career And Main Eventing With Swerve Strickland

AEW star Kevin Knight has opened up about the core motivation that drove him to enter professional wrestling, detailing his desire to break traditional industry stereotypes and represent authentic Black talent at the main-event level.

Speaking in a new interview with Hot 100.9, Knight reflected on his childhood as a wrestling fan and explained how seeing limited representation shaped his initial career goals:

“I feel like I wanted to create what I wanted to see in wrestling. Growing up, of course you had a couple of prominent black wrestlers but they were always stuck in a box or had to be a certain way or just weren’t taken seriously at all. I feel like I just wanted to be myself as well as just being taken serious. That was my whole goal getting into it.”

Inspirations Turned On-Screen Rivals

Knight pointed to former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Lio Rush as the key figures who showed him that success could be achieved without sacrificing authenticity:

“Swerve Strickland and Lio Rush were like my two biggest inspirations right when I got in because I saw them on the indies and they were being taken serious as main eventers and they were just being themselves as black men. That was something I felt like we didn’t get much growing up. So, I was like, let me add to the fire.”

For Knight, transitioning from fan to peer has resulted in full-circle moments on AEW television throughout 2026:

“Now, I’m working with guys like that. I had my first main event this year with Swerve Strickland. I had a title defense against Lio Rush. So, just being able to work with those guys is a dream come true in itself.”

Knight is currently scheduled for major tag team action at AEW All Out this Saturday, September 26, where he will team alongside Kyle Fletcher against Darby Allin & Steve Borden in a #1 Contender Match for the AEW Tag Team Championship.