Jake Hager on Differences for His Hager Character vs. Jack Swagger, Praises the AEW Roster

– WrestlingInc.com recently interviewed AEW wrestler and Bellator MMA fighter Jake Hager on the WINCLY podcast. Hager discussed his character in AEW vs. his character in WWE and more. Below are some highlights on WrestlingInc.com.

Hager on the Jack Swagger character vs. Jake Hager: “As cool as Jack Swagger was, he felt choreographed. I look at that as a 20-year-old Jake Hager. Now, Jake Hager is in his 30’s, he’s been around the world a couple of times, he’s got culture, he’s got experience. He’s just a, smarter, more well-developed human being.”

Hager on the differences between his wrestling training and MMA training: “The biggest difference so far is the rest days that I have. We normally train Monday through Friday, when my training partners are available, and we’d take the weekends off. Now, with AEW on Wednesday nights on TNT, we changed Wednesday’s-Thursday’s to our rest days and Friday’s-Tuesday’s as our work days. It is an exhausting grind, and I have to be really focused on getting my rest on those days off and getting the proper nutrition so I can come home and start right back up again. I can’t miss a beat because it is a short window that I have.”

His thoughts on AEW’s roster: “At AEW they have such a great roster. Off the top of my head, I can name ten people I want to wrestle there. Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, Rey Fenix, Penta. There are so many guys there that would be a fresh matchup for the Jack Swagger/Jake Hager-style. In MMA, I’m very excited about the heavyweight division. I definitely want to fight (Heavyweight Champion) Ryan Bader. I would love to fight Fedor Emelianenko in Russia, maybe we can make that happen. As for a third, can I say a politician? Chuck Schumer.”