Alrighty then.
It appears Dana White’s slap-fighting experiment
is still around.Former WWE World Heavyweight champion and Bellator MMA veteran Jake Hager has signed a six-fight deal with Power Slap. Hager — previously known to wrestling fans as Jack Swagger — is expected to debut on Fri., April 17, 2026, the night before WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I’ve been told that I have a very slappable face, so I’m sure the line will be around the corner,” Hager joked to TMZ.
Back in August of last
year, Dana White revealed that Power Slap was targeting current and former professional wrestlers from major organizations as potential recruits. Landing a recognizable name like Hager — who spent more than a decade under the bright lights of WWE and later competed for All Elite Wrestling — marks one of the promotion’s most notable crossover signings to date.
Transitioning from scripted combat to legitimate MMA — and now to competitive slapping — is certainly unconventional, but Hager says he understands the risks.
“You know what you signed up for,” he said. “You’re signing up to get slapped and trying to slap someone back as hard as you can. So I expect injuries to happen. I know UFC does a great job of covering all expenses related to the injuries. I’m not worried about it, to be honest.”
Following his WWE run, Hager signed with Bellator MMA while still wrestling with AEW. Hager went 3-1 under the Bellator MMA banner, defeating local 7/11 employees before stepping away from the sport in 2023. His AEW contract expired in 2024, and now the former heavyweight champion is set to test his chin in an entirely different arena.
