JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A reality in pro wrestling is fans by nature wonder whether they could beat the wrestlers in a fight. They wonder whether the performers are truly gifted athletes.
But no one asks that question about Jake Hager. No one.
The former football, amateur wrestling and mixed martial arts star is a genetic freak of nature. He has excelled in everything he’s tried and WWE noticed that when he was first brought in during 2006. He didn’t keep his real name in WWE and went by Jack Swagger.
“Jack Swagger came about because I smiled at Vince (McMahon) and he said, ‘Man, I hate that smile,’” said Hager. “So I immediately wiped it off my face and he’s like, ‘No, no, keep doing it. It’s going to piss everyone off.' And I kind of had some wild hair then. A little bit of a reputation with the ladies. So the next day I was told that I was Jack Swagger.”
Quickly he was thrust to the top of the wrestling world as a two-time world champion.
“I just had someone tell me they hated me so much as a kid. I was like great, I was doing my job,” said Hager who played a cocky and arrogant “heel” of a character.
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Hager came into the company with a leg up on other wrestlers because he was a standout in amateur wrestling growing up.
“The technique, there was no learning curve. I was right there. It was pretty much the same thing we were doing in practice in college,” said Hager.
But Hager learned there’s a staggering difference going from amateur wrestling to pro wrestling. Pro wrestling is a show. It’s by nature violent performance art. And that was something he had to learn.
“Being vulnerable and becoming a character. That was the hard part. Like amateur wrestlers, you don’t want to lose. So now I come into the entertainment world and I have to be vulnerable on camera,” he said.
One of his early feuds was with a man who was even bigger than the 6′7″ Hager: Paul Wight AKA “The Big Show” (who you can hear from way back on Going Ringside Episode 1).
“It was so much fun. Learned a lot,” he said. “Small guys you’ve got to work differently. You work a giant, you’ve got to work differently. I blew out his knee. I kicked him right in the knee and he had to have surgery. So, he still to this day will break my b***s about that.”
But after WWE, Hager tried a different trade. He went into the very real world of mixed martial arts, where he’s undefeated.
“In 2017 I left WWE, I’m very proud of this,” he said of MMA. “For the next 12 months, I’m grinding my a** off. I only know amateur wrestling. I don’t know how to box, I don’t know how to kickbox. I don’t know how to do judo, only know how to do jiu-jitsu. I know nothing about defense. I know nothing about cage wrestling. So Monday through Friday I’m doing practice every day.”
Then eventually Hager moved onto Jacksonville-based AEW and was one of the top stars in the newly formed company alongside Chris Jericho.
“It was awesome. Chris Jericho is the greatest of all time,” said Hager. “One of my favorites. For him to bring me in and say I’m his guy. What a compliment. Tony (Khan) didn’t want me there. But Chris said he wanted me there and it was awesome.”
Hager said one of his favorite times in AEW was ironically when AEW was forced to do all its shows for more than a year in Jacksonville during the pandemic.
“One of my favorite moments of my career was the Stadium Stampedes that we did,” said Hager of 10-man tag team matches on the Jaguars field. “I think Daily’s Place is a great wrestling arena. Great place to hold a wrestling show. It’s really cool. Those days were special.”
Also on this episode, we’re joined by the creator of the “Florida Man Games” and the former WWE star who fans knew by the name “Reggie.”