Jake Hager, also known as Jack Swagger, departed AEW last year and, except for some political tweets that grabbed headlines, he has remained out of the spotlight. Still, it came as a surprise when he revealed on Saraya’s podcast that he considers himself retired from the ring at the age of 43, having launched his own trucking company.
And now, during his own podcast, Hager’s former on-screen manager, Dutch Mantell, who went by the name Zeb Colter at the time, has addressed this, revealing Hager was already “sick of the business” while working for WWE, and didn’t grow up as a wrestling fan.
Hager joined WWE in 2006 after meeting Jim Ross and, over the next two years, gained experience in their then developmental territories, Deep South Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling, and Florida Championship Wrestling. Subsequently, he would be introduced to the masses as Jack Swagger via WWE’s version of ECW, going on to win the brand’s championship. Still, his true career highlight came in 2010 after winning the Money In The Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI and cashing in on Chris Jericho a few days later after John Cena had legitimately refused to put him over.
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