Donald Jacob Hager, better known as Jake Hager in AEW or Jack Swagger in WWE, recently appeared as a guest on the "Insight with Chris Van Vliet" show. The former WWE World Heavyweight Champion spoke on a variety of topics like his WWE Money in the Bank cash-in and contract renegotiation with Tony Khan.
When asked what first came to his mind after seeing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Hager replied, "Right after WrestleMania, the next day, we were in Phoenix, and I did a tease with [John] Cena. Then I was supposed to be off, but Tuesday morning I got a call. I was off, and they called me in to go to Las Vegas for a thing because they had an idea. So, we were taping SmackDown at that time, and it was going to air on Friday. I got to the building early and went to stand outside Vince's office. Chris [Jericho], Edge, John Laurinaitis, and Vince [McMahon] were all in there. I could just hear Chris yelling because Chris and Edge just had that epic World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania two nights before. And, wherever they were heading, the plans shifted. Chris said, 'You better not f**k this up.'"
Hager went on to cash his "Money in the Bank" contract on Jericho to become the new World Heavyweight Champion just a week after WrestleMania.
"So it all worked out great. And Chris did that thing where he took his shoe off a little bit before the gutwrench powerbomb, and the shoe went flying into the audience, and that was something that he wanted to do. So I appreciate both of those guys [Jericho and Edge]. And I had a match with Randy Orton after that, and I worked with Big Show. It was awesome," Hager said, beaming with pride.
According to Hager, the original plan was for him to cash in the “Money in the Bank” contract on WWE Champion John Cena on Raw instead of on Jericho on SmackDown. However, because of Cena’s reluctance to put him over, the plan was changed.
"He [John Cena] absolutely refused to do it. I was told that was how it happened because the original plan was that I was going to beat him Monday night on Raw and not do the tease. But, I'm a young guy. I've been there for a cup of coffee, so 'What are you going to do?' But, I'm not the only guy he's done that to. He did that throughout his career," Hager revealed.
When asked if there was ever a moment where he stopped loving wrestling, Hager replied affirmatively. The time came during his tenure in AEW when his contract was about to be over and Tony Khan offered him only a contract of 18 months.
"My first contract with AEW was up [during the 2021 Blood and Guts], and after that, the renegotiation process was very one-sided. I could tell that... well, anyway, I always find a way to say this every day, so I think everyone should too: f**k Tony Khan. I could tell that he didn't want me there. He offered me like a year and a half. I was like, 'Bro, I just did Stadium Stampede twice. Don't act like Stadium Stampede didn’t put AEW on the map.' I was in the debut episode. I was the big spoiler. And you offered me 18 months after all that. So, it was that and the way he started running the business. He wasn't a professional.
Like, after all the Punk s**t went down, the boys got together, and we had a meeting. Sting was there. [Big] Show, [Chris] Jericho, Bryan [Danielson], [Jon] Moxley, they were all standing at the front, kind of talking us through this s**t. Behold, who comes into the room, storming in like daddy's little billionaire? He's [Tony Khan] yelling at us because some talent didn't want to come in. They didn't like the storyline, so they refused to come to TV that day, and he was like, 'Listen, I'll put you in a six-man six minutes before the show, and you're gonna do it.' And we were all feeling disrespected. I still, to this day, wish I would have stood up and said a lot of things. You just told Sting that you're going to put him in a six-man in six minutes, but then you're going to honor him for his retirement."
Hager divulged that he didn't like the way Tony Khan was treating the talent at AEW.
"We became his little playthings. We had to wait outside his office. His storylines were very good at debuting, but he could never carry anything through. It got to the point where we couldn't tell him anything. He couldn't take criticism. And we were all just having to deal with it. We all put blood, sweat, and tears into that company. We were all there at the beginning. We all had our careers behind us that helped build that company. Then, we all had to just sit side by side and couldn't do anything because he wanted to run it the way he wanted to run it," Hager elaborated.
However, Hager still signed a short contract with AEW before being released permanently in mid-2024.
"I didn't know what I was going to do next. I will say that AEW paid well, so I re-signed to give myself more time to figure out what was next. We negotiated the contract a little bit longer. But the writing was on the wall, and I could see that from the way he treated me," Hager finished his two-minute rant on AEW owner Tony Khan.
Jake Hager currently owns a truck business and revealed in the interview that he has retired from professional wrestling and MMA forever.
