Jack Swagger Says He Has a New Love of Wrestling Since Leaving WWE, Recalls Soaring Eagle Character

– Jack Swagger discussed his new love of wrestling since leaving WWE in a new interview on Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, and shared memories of the Swagger Soaring Eagle character. The highlights are below:

On the Swagger Soaring Eagle character: “Thank you, Chavo Guerrero and everything you’ve done in the [pro] wrestling business. I was very grateful. It was one of those things that… but, it was one of those things that came about and at first, Chavo was not very happy about it and he was like, ‘is this all you have for me?’ type of deal. And then, it just kind of took off for a little bit. I really don’t remember how it started with, ‘Hey, let’s have a mascot’ type of deal. All I know is we had Heath Slater do the mascot one night and he was f–king horrible. He just stood there. And then, if you look at Chavo, Chavo is all over the place and doing it. He wasn’t happy about it.”

On getting Guerrero to wear the costume to a hotel bar: “One night we were having a gin tournament on a European tour. Gin, yeah, gin rummy. We were in Turkey our last night and me and Chavo were in the finals and the bet was that if Chavo won, I had to dress up as the eagle and come out for his match and do something and if I won, then Chavo had to come down to the bar that night after the show and stay in gimmick the whole time. Thank you. Yeah, I got lucky and I won. He came down to the bar dressed up as the eagle like a great sport that he is.”

On watching WWE these days: “This is all very new to me, but, at the same time, I’m loving it. I have a new love for [pro] wrestling all over again away from the company that we all hate, but at the same time, we all watch. It [has] been very cool, man. I really dig it. I’ve been wrestling in some form since I was five years old, so to be here and to be able to provide for my family. Forget about it, dude. It’s f–king awesome.”

On working in the indies: “The weirdest thing by far for me is the ropes. Like, every show the ropes are different and they’re sometimes loose as f–k and like, ‘uh, should we do that?’. But, dude, other than that, I’m low key, man. But so far, so good. I’ve only been in it a month, so ask me again in two months.”

On his new company: “One of the silver linings of me leaving the company is I’ve started my own merchandise company. Hopefully, we can branch that off and do my wife’s fashion line that she wants, but right now, you can get all the Jack Swagger merchandise at lfrlife.com, which, we were kind of like, ‘argh, should we tell them what LFR means [or] keep it a secret?’ But LFR means ‘let’s f–king rage’. Live that life.”