Swerve Strickland forms ‘Mogul Affiliates’ group on AEW Dynamite

Swerve Strickland officially ended his tag team with Keith Lee on Dynamite, forming a new faction called Mogul Affiliates.

Rick Ross introduced Lee and Swerve on Wednesday’s show, serving as a mediator between the two. Lee came to the ring, but when Swerve came out, he rejected the idea of a mediation, saying instead Lee needed to keep eyes in the back of his head. This was when Parker Boudreaux attacked him from behind.

Lee eliminated Boudreaux from the ring and started to walk towards Strickland when another man, who was never identified, attacked Lee. All three men were wearing ‘Mogul Affiliates’ apparel. The unidentified man and Bordeaux then helped Strickland set up Lee on the ring steps, placing a cinder block on Lee’s chest as Swerve went to the top of the ring post and launched off with a double foot stomp, driving the cinder block into Lee’s chest.

Fightful later identified the unidentified man as Granden Goetzman, a former baseball player who was a second-round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011. He had been working the MLB minor league system through 2019. Fightful reported that his debut had been planned out for the past couple of weeks, and had been training at Jay Lethal’s school.

Lee and Swerve had been teasing dissention in recent weeks. It was Lee who walked out of their tag match with The Acclaimed at Full Gear back in November, allowing The Acclaimed to retain the AEW World Tag Team titles. Earlier this month at ROH Final Battle, Swerve walked out on Lee in their match against Shane Taylor and JD Griffey. Despite this, Lee still won the match for their team.