There is already some blowback from the Jake Hager interview from today’s new episode of ‘INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet’.
As noted, the former Bellator MMA fighter, formerly known as Jack Swagger during his days in WWE, appeared on the popular podcast this week for a sit-down interview.
During the discussion, Hager confirmed his retirement from pro wrestling and spoke about falling out of love with the business.
While touching on the topic, Hager reflected on the fallout from the CM Punk shoot incidents in AEW, including a meeting held behind-the-scenes that he regretted not speaking up during.
Hager stated the following:
After all the [CM] Punk sh*t that went down, the boys got together and we had a meeting. This was the boys only, no office. Sting’s in there, [Big] Show, [Chris] Jericho, Bryan [Danielson], [Jon Moxley], they’re all standing at the front talking us through this sh*t.
And lo and behold, who comes in the room storming in? Daddy’s little billionaire. And he’s yelling at us because—I think it was Dax [Harwood] and Cash [Wheeler]—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’re all just—all feeling disrespected. I still to this day wish I would’ve stood up and said a lot of things. You just told Sting that you’re gonna put him in a six-man in six minutes, and then you’re gonna honor him for his retirement?
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 you couldn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t take criticism, he was f*cking up, and we were all just having to dealing with it.
We all had blood, sweat, and tears put into that company. We were all there at the beginning. 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.
In response to this, Dax Harwood of the AEW tag-team FTR surfaced on social media to dispute the claims made by Hager. He wrote the following on X in response to the above Hager comments.
Cash [Wheeler] and I were at the all-talent only meeting that was called by Bryan [Danielson], [Chris] Jericho, and [Jon Moxley].
Tony [Khan] 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 [AEW] Collision started, we’re the most consistent talent that make BOTH shows EVERY WEEK.
I’m not really sure where all this is coming from, but it’s mostly not true.
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… https://t.co/Hf9mPtyZfe
— Dax FTR (@DaxFTR) August 26, 2025
