Jake Hager is a storied and increasingly controversial figure these days. A former World Heavyweight Champion in WWE under his old Jack Swagger persona, Hager’s wrestling career took something of a back seat in recent years with his growing focus on his MMA career. Once named an All-American in collegiate wrestling back in his days at the University of Oklahoma, and set the record for most pins in a season at 30, it’s not too surprising that he’s done well for himself in mixed martial arts.
However, he hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to endear himself to followers of the sport. After getting his second straight submission victory over T.J. Jones at Bellator 221, he held onto his triangle choke for several seconds after the submission. The crowd wasn’t happy with this, nor was the referee. In a post fight interview he seemed sadistically pleased himself, telling the world that he was rock hard with emotion and had a boner. Yes, that’s actually what he said!
Hager of course recently reappeared in the pro wrestling landscape, joining up with Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana & Ortiz at the debut episode of AEW Dynamite at the start of the month. This was speculated on, but considered something of a surprise given that his third MMA fight was set for October 25th, just weeks later.
Whilst establishing himself as the heavy of the Inner Circle, Hager has avoided actually getting in the ring so as to not risk injury during his fight camp. Last night, his fight with Anthony Garrett took place, opening up Bellator 231’s main card.
The controversy around Jake Hager continued in his latest bout.
The fight ended swiftly into the first round like his first two encounters, but this one didn’t have a winner. Hager landed two errant low blows to his opponent in a row. It was then ruled that Garrett would not be able to continue and the fight was called as a No Contest.
https://twitter.com/OnMMA/status/1187902236237664258
While it seems clear enough that the low blows were unintentional, Hager has showed zero sympathy towards the incident. In fact he’s gone on record to dispute that the first shot was even a low blow at all. He has painted Garrett as a coward who simply took the opportunity to get the match thrown out to avoid having to fight him any longer. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t have any respect for his opponent or is willing to accept any blame for what occurred.
It would appear that Jake Hager is angling to be a heel in both pro wrestling and MMA.
While he would be far from the first combat sports athlete to play himself up like a villain to make a name for himself, he’s in a unique position here. If anything his antics only feel in-character for his wrestling persona and you can expect this to be played up in his role in AEW going forward. Look for Hager to keep submission holds on after victories and hit wicked low blows in his matches.
It should be noted that Guevara, Santana & Ortiz all accompanied Hager to the cage for his fight.
