Ex-WWE World Champion Officially Retires After Leaving AEW

A former WWE Champion has confirmed his retirement from wrestling.

Jake Hager, who wrestled in the Stamford promotion as Jack Swagger, made his debut in 2008 under the ECW brand.

In January 2009, he defeated Matt Hardy to become the brand’s champion for the first time. In June, he was drafted to RAW, where he was until March 2010.

In April 2010, he cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Chris Jericho, who was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion on SmackDown. After cashing in, he subsequently became a member of the blue brand.

While he did not win any major championship after that, Hager won the United States Championship once.

After being involved in multiple singles storylines and being a part of factions such as The Real Americans, he requested his release in 2017, departing the promotion in March.

During his run as the Money in the Bank contract winner, John Cena had allegedly refused to drop his title to Hager.

Ex-WWE Star Jake Hager Confirms Retirement From Wrestling

Before calling the curtains on his wrestling career, Jake Hager wrestled for AEW.

His debut came in October 2019, when he officially joined Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle and later, Jericho Appreciation Society.

While he did not win any titles there, he was awarded the Dynamite Award twice.

Hager recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his wrestling career and share stories from his WWE and AEW runs.

When asked by the host about his recent retirement, he confirmed the reports.

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.

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.

I had accomplished everything that I really cared about and wanted to move on for the longest time. [H/T: Insight with Chris Van Vliet]

Jake Hager claimed he felt disrespected in WWE, resulting in him asking for his release. Read what he said here.