He says he’s retired, but Jake Hager is still talking about the pro wrestling business.
In the new Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the former WWE World Heavyweight champion (back when he was Jack Swagger) says that his exit from AEW has soured him on the entire wrestling business:
“I’m very jaded from my exit at AEW. Like, I’m very proud of the stuff I did there, but at the same time, I find myself questioning right now. I wish I would have just stayed in MMA at some point.”
Hager’s AEW exit in early
2024 had been reported on as a mutual decision, although there were clear signs of problems between the standout amateur wrestler from Oklahoma and the man in charge of AEW, Tony Khan. Hager expands on those problems with Van Vliet:
“The negotiation process was very one-way
“And I could tell that — well, anyways, I always find a way to say this every day, so I think everyone should too: say, ‘Fuck 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 [of Dynamite], I was the big spoiler. And you offer me 18 months after all that?
“So it was that and the way that he started running the business that it really — like he wasn’t a professional.”
As an example of Khan’s alleged unprofessionalism, Hager told the story of a “boys only” meeting the wrestlers held at AEW “after all the [CM] Punk shit that went down”:
“We’re all like —- Sting’s in there, Show [Paul Wight], Jericho, Bryan, Mox, they’re all standing at the front kind of like talking us through this shit. Lo and behold, who comes into the room storming in — daddy’s little billionaire. And he’s like yelling at us, because I think it was Dax [Harwood] and Cash Wheeler didn’t want to come in, they didn’t like the storylines, 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 going to do it.’ And we’re all just like all feeling disrespected. And I still to this day wish I would have stood up and said, you know, a lot of things, but, like, you just told Sting that you’re going to put him in a six-man and six minutes, but then you’re going to honor him for his retirement. We were all, we became his little playthings.”
A lot of wrestling fans and industry observers believe TK’s a bad boss, including many people who enjoy AEW’s product. Hager’s stories will stoke those fires, though. The rest of his critique of his former boss opened with another common viewer complaint:
“We had to wait outside his office — his storylines were very good at debuting, but he can never carry anything through and… it got to the point where you couldn’t tell him anything.
“He couldn’t take criticism. He was fucking up and we were all just having to deal with it. You know, like we all had blood, sweat, and tears put into that company. We were all there at the beginning. Like, we all had our careers behind us that helped build that company. And 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.”
FTR, who were seen as being Punk allies during what Hager refers to as “all the Punk shit”, were quick to refute their former co-worker’s story. Dax Harwood reposted aggregation of Hager’s quotes and added:
Cash and I were at the all-talent only meeting that was called by Bryan, Jericho, and Mox.
Tony never interrupted.
Cash and I have NEVER refused to show up to work and, I’d to dare say, if you look at our schedules since Collision started, we’re the most consistent talent that make BOTH shows EVERY WEEK.
Im not really sure where all this is coming from, but it’s mostly not true.
Cash Wheeler reposted his partner, and included a screenshot of a text conversation with Hager where Jake admits he didn’t know for sure it was Harwood & Wheeler who Khan was upset with in his story. There’s no mention of Dax disputing TK’s involvement.
While much of this is just new detail to old stories that will reinforce a lot of people’s opinions about AEW and Tony Khan, it’s also interesting to note that a long-time associate of Chris Jericho is taking aim at Khan and his promotion amidst speculation Jericho could become the next AEW founder to return to WWE.
Here’s the entire episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet featuring Hager:
