The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is a new generation ocean observation satellite. It is used to provide a new method for wave detection by adopting the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observation system at a small incidence angle. Based on previous studies on SAR wave spectrum inversion, the applicability of the wave spectrum inversion algorithm for SWOT satellite data is studied. The effects of wind speed, wind direction, and main wave direction on wave spectrum inversion are discussed. The effective wave height of the inversion is verified using the ERA5 dataset from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The results show that the root mean square errors (RMSE) of the effective wave height inversion are 0.30 m, 0.19 m, and 0.64 m at wind speeds of 7-9 m/s, 9-11 m/s, and >11 m/s, respectively. The scatter indices (SI) are 16.74%, 7.03%, and 19.61%, respectively. It can be proven that the SWOT satellite, as a small incidence angle SAR, has the potential to invert wave spectra and wave parameters.