Swerve Strickland’s career has seen remarkable progress since signing with Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling. Though his momentum took time to build, his reign as AEW World Champion solidified him as a top talent, with his House Call move standing out as a defining part of his move set. However, this wasn’t always the case during his NXT days.
The former AEW World Champion has used several finishing moves throughout his career, including the House Call, JML Driver, and the Swerve Stomp. In AEW, the House Call has become a reliable finisher, effective against opponents of all sizes—a key attribute for a signature move.
Yet, in NXT, the House Call wasn’t always seen as an ideal finishing move, and he was advised against using it.
During an interview on No Contest Wrestling, Strickland recalled how NXT’s feedback on his move was different. Both Triple H and Shawn Michaels had discouraged him from using it as his main finisher.
Strickland shared that he struggled to find an alternative, especially as Finn Bálor’s return meant he couldn’t use the Swerve Stomp, which was too similar to Bálor’s Coup de Grace.
Drawing on inspiration from Japanese wrestler Naruki Doi, Strickland incorporated the Naruki Driver, though it presented challenges, especially against larger opponents like Bronson Reed.
When it was time to face Bronson for the NXT North American Championship, the situation came full circle. Despite the previous advice, HBK eventually approved the House Call as Strickland’s finishing move.
Here’s what Strickland said:
“When I first started doing [the House Call] in NXT, I would hit it, but some people would duck and it would [skims top of head]. Triple H was like, ‘Don’t use it as a finish. I like it, but don’t use it as a finish.’ Shawn (Michaels) would agree with him, ‘Yeah, it’s not a finish. Sometimes it hits, sometimes it doesn’t.’ People are ducking from it. If you duck from it, of course I’m going to miss. You of all people, Shawn, you do a superkick. He’s like, ‘It’s not a finish.’
I struggled finding a new finish for a while in NXT. Finn came back, so I couldn’t do the Swerve Stomp. I’m a big fan of Naruki Doi. He does the Naruki Driver. Shoutout to SATs, Storm Cradle Driver is the original. I saw that and I was using it on Leon Ruff. ‘I can hit that.’ Bronson Reed came up and I was like ‘Ughhh, how do I do this?’
It came time to win the North American Title, this is like a year apart, Bronson is the North American Champion, Shawn is like, ‘We were coming up with creative for the finish. Can you do that kick for the finish?’ You gotta be kidding me. I had to circle a whole year of Shawn being like, ‘Now you can do what you want.’”
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