During his appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Jake Hager spoke on what led to his WWE departure. Here’s what he had to say:
In 2017, the company had an option in my contract where they had the option to pick it up and pay me at the same price – I was finishing up my second five-year contract with them. And so, I was a little fed up and finally grew some balls and stood up for myself and said ‘No, we’re gonna renegotiate now.’ This was December of 2016, and then by February of 2017, I finally got some straight answers out of them. What they offered me was just ridiculous. It was insulting, and I knew that’s where I stood with them, so it was not as insulting as it was. I was off and had a skin and rash all over my body, so I was at home anyway which worked out well because I could talk with my wife and figure out what we wanted to do. Honestly, to substitute that type of income, it’s very scary, especially for a young professional with no other experience besides wrestling on TV. That always kept us close to the fed, but that time, what they offered us, we didn’t even make a counter. It was one of those things where I immediately asked for my release, and two days later they gave it to me. I was really surprised actually that they gave it to me. At the time, I was still in good standing with Vince and the higher-ups to where they were just like let’s let him go.
You can listen HERE.
Credit: Talk Is Jericho. H/T 411Mania.
