Jake Hager Reveals AEW Backstage Secrets: “That’s Just Inexcusable”
Jake Hager (fka Jack Swagger) has worked with two of the biggest pro wrestling promotions in the world: WWE and AEW.
The 44-year-old star recently had an interview with the Off the Rails podcast with Jasmine St. Claire. During the interview, he was asked to share his experience working with WWE and AEW and the backstage cultures in both promotions.
While talking about AEW, he revealed some secrets about Tony Khan’s locker room. He said that AEW’s locker room had many younger wrestlers, creating a different, more modern culture.
Talents were generally open-minded and inclusive, but some stars were overly sensitive or treated minor issues as major problems. Despite that criticism, Jake Hager made it clear that he enjoyed being in the AEW locker room overall.
A lot of younger kids were in the AEW locker room, so it’s going to be the newer culture—everything is more accepted. Things are scarier that aren’t really scary. I really enjoyed the AEW locker room.
You could just tell the overall politics of AEW were kind of like, ‘What are we doing?’ You see the writing on the wall when you see who’s running it.”
AEW’s Backstage Leadership And Creative Direction Deteriorated Over Time, Says Jake Hager
Jake Hager added that AEW initially planned its television several weeks in advance, but the creative process later became disorganized. Even two hours before AEW Dynamite went live, the final show script or rundown was sometimes not finished.
When we first started AEW, we knew a month ahead of time. We knew four weeks of storylines ahead of time. Imagine how much better you can make your performance when you know what you’re doing.
Everything was last minute. There were so many times that it’d be six o’clock and we’re going live at eight on Wednesday for Dynamite, and the show hadn’t even been put out yet.
It’s not even out at six o’clock. What are you doing all week that you don’t have a live television show written until six o’clock? That’s just inexcusable.”
Jake Hager, who has come out of retirement recently, was with AEW from 2019 to 2024.