Jake Hager, formerly known as Jack Swagger during his days in WWE, recently appeared as a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, AEW star and Bellator MMA fighter spoke about the longstanding rumor that John Cena refused to put him over in WWE, if he has retired, why he fell out of love with pro wrestling, why he thinks Bill Goldberg sucks and more.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On the rumor that John Cena refused to put him over: “Oh yeah, he absolutely refused to do it.”
On if John Cena himself told him that: “I was told that was what happened. Because the original plan was I was gonna beat him Monday night on Raw and not do the tease. But I’m a young guy. I’ve been there for a cup of coffee, so what are you gonna do? But I’m not the only guy he’s done that to, he did that throughout his career. I was surprised to see what happened with him and truth lately, because usually he tried to take that glory. But I feel like this time, he’s the one who said we better go with Truth and get him back here.”
On whether he has retired: “Retired baby, Hall of Fame. I used to say before I would go through the curtain in gorilla, ‘You want me in the Hall of Fame?’ Right before the music would hit. That would just be my mentality.”
On the decision to retire: “I had done it since 2006, dedicated a lot of my best parts of my life to the sport, roughly 17-18 years, very grateful. Had a good gig for most of that and blessed to have done it. Because pro wrestling is very tough to get into, and there’s literally hundreds of thousands of people who want to become pro wrestlers, and it’s grown every day. Like I said, I don’t watch it anymore. So I think for me, I had accomplished everything that I really cared about and wanted to move on for the longest time. I always was like, what am I going to do after pro wrestling? What trade do I have? And this is a great story, I rode with Dutch Mantell for years, and I’ll put winning the World Heavyweight Championship up there with riding with Dutch Mantell, it was that important to my career, the things that I learned, the things that he taught me, and just his f*cking funny phrases. The guy has just a way with words. He could insult you and you’re like, Thank you Dutch. But he was always like ‘Jack, whatever you do from here, you gotta use what you did in pro wrestling at the WWE, the way they use you. You gotta use that background in whatever you venture into next.’ And if you think about it like that, advice always stuck with me. Okay, I could be a salesperson because I can talk on the mic in front of live people, or I could be endearing and be vulnerable at the same time. So that could help me with something else, but pretty much with pro wrestling, you’re a professional driver. You are gone Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then you’re home Wednesday, home 36 hours, and then you’re back out on Friday, and every single one of those days, you’re in a rental car, and you are driving town to town, making the town. So that really stuck with me, and it kind of like influenced me to go into the truck driving business, because I’m already a professional driver. I told Vince this once, the wrestling I’ll do for free, you got to pay me for the driving. And so it kind of led me to where I’m at now, and I’m excited.”
On when he fell out of love with wrestling: “I’m very jaded from my exit at AEW. 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. Inner Circle was one of my favorite things to do in pro wrestling. I love those guys. JAS, Daddy Magic. I mean, I just really loved working with Chris. He’s number one on my Mount Rushmore, Chris Jericho, because he can just constantly reinvent himself. He can not only do that, but he can see what he has around him, and he knows how to elevate us, bring it up and make it look good. Chris Jericho is the reason why that purple hat was so over.”
On what he means by that: “It was his intuition. We did that backstage promo, and it was live to the crowd, and where I first said, ‘I like this hat!’ The crowd just popped. Once he heard that pop, that’s all he needed to know.”
On why he re-signed with AEW at that point: “I didn’t know what I was gonna do next. I mean, I will say that AEW paid well. So I re-signed to give me more time to figure out what’s next. We negotiated the contract a little bit longer, but the writing was on the wall, and I could see that from the way he treated me. Even when it was me and Daddy Magic and Jeff, and we’re doing that little threesome. We had a little stint against Billy Gunn and his boys, the tag team, and we did that rap off, we went out and rapped in the ring. I mean, who doesn’t want to see white guys rap on television? But it’s Daddy Magic. So you’re gonna love it. You’re gonna tune in. Right before that happened, like the beat started, and he was like, ‘I’m gonna forget. I’m gonna forget.’ I was like, Dude, it’s just a promo. Just remember a promo. He turns to me and goes, ‘I f*cking forgot!’ And so I say the first word that starts his little lyrical conquest. And he had it from there, but, man, I loved working with those guys.”
On thinking Bill Goldberg sucks: “He can’t run a spot. The only thing he could do is a f*cking spear and get paid $600,000 for it.”
On Goldberg being 58 years old: “Then stop pro wrestling! Stop coming in and taking our money. Sorry. I’m not sorry.”
