In his first pay-per-view title defense since winning the AEW World Championship last month at Dynasty, Swerve Strickland defeated Christian Cage at Double or Nothing on Sunday to retain the AEW world title.

Strickland crushed Cage with the Swerve Stomp before finishing him off with the House Call for the victory.

Following the match, Swerve celebrated with undefeated and retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

After pursuing the world title for months, Swerve finally reached the top of the mountain in AEW at Dynasty by beating Samoa Joe in the main event.

However, Strickland did not get to celebrate his victory for long, as his first major challenger was announced on the second episode of Dynamite after Dynasty.

In the wake of The Elite’s attack on AEW president Tony Khan, The Young Bucks put themselves in charge as executive vice presidents, and Swerve expressed his displeasure with how they were going about their business.

Matt and Nick Jackson responded by bringing out Strickland’s Double or Nothing opponent in Christian, who had been off AEW programming since dropping the TNT Championship to Adam Copeland in March.

Cage and his Patriarchy stable attacked Strickland, and he reminded Swerve of why he had incentive to seek revenge.

For starters, Cage placed the blame on Strickland for their loss at All In last year, as they fell to Sting and Darby Allin in a tag team match.

Also, Christian brought up the fact that Swerve once showed up at Nick Wayne’s home and brutally attacked him, leaving Wayne in a pool of his own blood. Since then, Cage has taken Wayne under his wing and become a father figure to him.

With AEW attempting to establish Swerve as a fan favorite and one of the faces of the company, it made sense to pit him against one of the best villains in the wrestling business in his first major feud after becoming world champion.

Strickland passed his first test with flying colors, and he appears poised for a potentially lengthy and successful title reign.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below.