Former AEW star Jake Hager (Jack Swagger in WWE) has opened up about why he soured on pro wrestling and ultimately stepped away from the business, pointing directly at Tony Khan’s leadership style as the breaking point.
Hager, who revealed earlier this month that he has retired from the ring to run his trucking company, recalled how his All Elite Wrestling journey unraveled after initially being positioned as a major player. He debuted on the company’s very first Dynamite as the surprise enforcer of Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle and was part of both Stadium Stampede matches, which he credits with helping “put AEW on the map.”
But when his first contract expired, the renewal process left him feeling unwanted. “I could tell he didn’t want me there,” Hager said on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. “He offered me like a year and a half. Bro, I just did Stadium Stampede twice. I was in the debut episode. I was the big spoiler and you offer me 18 months after all that?”
Hager pointed to a backstage meeting in the aftermath of CM Punk-related turmoil as the moment his respect for Khan collapsed. According to him, the locker room had gathered privately – “the boys only, no office” – with veterans like Sting, Big Show, Jericho, Bryan Danielson, and Jon Moxley leading the discussion.
That’s when Khan barged in. “Lo and behold, who comes storming in? Daddy’s little billionaire,” Hager recalled. “He’s yelling at us because I think it was Dax (Harwood) and Cash (Wheeler) didn’t want to come in that day. They didn’t like the storyline. So they refused to come to TV, and Tony’s like, ‘Listen, I’ll put you in a six-man, six minutes before the show, and you’re going to do it.’”
The tone of the meeting, Hager said, was one of disrespect. “You just told Sting you’re going to throw him in a six-man in six minutes, but then you’re going to honor him for his retirement? We became his little play things.”
Hager didn’t hold back on how Khan’s approach affected the locker room. “His storylines were very good at debuting, but he could never carry anything through. And it got to the point where I couldn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t take criticism. He was f**king up, and we were all just having to deal with it.”
The frustration ran deep, particularly for those who felt they had built the company from the ground up. “We all had blood, sweat, and tears put into that company. We were there at the beginning. We had careers behind us that helped build AEW. And then we 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 admitted he still wishes he had spoken up more forcefully during that period, but ultimately he chose to step away. By mid-2023, his AEW contract was allowed to expire, and now at 42, he’s left wrestling behind entirely.
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