While Jake Hager—Jack Swagger—found early success in WWE, it wasn't until his pairing with Cesaro and a "We The People!" gimmick that fans got fully behind the former World Heavyweight Champion.
Then WWE Chairman Vince McMahon ignored fans who wanted to see Hager get another main event run, so there was a fair bit of excitement when he eventually showed up in AEW. He joined the company in 2019 as a member of Chris Jericho's Inner Circle faction, but like any toy AEW President Tony Khan grows bored with, Hager started appearing on TV less and less.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Hager reflected on his AEW exit and a meeting that took place among "the boys" (professional wrestlers) about the "Brawl Out" incident involving CM Punk.
"[Tony] wasn’t a professional," Hager stated. "After all the Punk shit that went down, the boys got together and we had a meeting, and this was the boys only, no office, right? We’re all like Sting’s in there, Show, Jericho, Bryan, Mox, they’re all standing at the front, kind of like, talking us through this shit, and lo and behold, who comes into the room storming in?"
"Daddy’s little billionaire," Hager said of Khan. "He’s like, yelling at us. We were all feeling disrespected." He later added that wrestlers were made to feel like "his little playthings."
Sharing some rare insights into the inner workings of AEW, Hager added, "We had to wait outside his office. His storylines were very good at debuting, but he could never carry anything through. And then got to the point where I’m carrying on, but it got to the point where couldn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t take criticism."
"He was f***ing up, and we’re all just having to deal with it, you know, like we all had blood, sweat and tears put into that company. We were all there at the beginning, like 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," Hager concluded.
The former AEW star isn't angling for a WWE return with these remarks, as he's since retired from professional wrestling and has started his own trucking company in Florida.
Khan's booking and actions as a company executive are often criticised, and he does somewhat appear to be in over his head. AEW still produces quality matches and shows, but is no longer a realistic rival to WWE, something that's evident from ratings and overall interest.
You can hear more from Hager on AEW and more in the player below.