Tony Khan Reveals Jake Hager Was Signed Before AEW All Out

Tony Khan can keep a secret.

On Wednesday’s premiere of AEW Dynamite, the show closed with Jake Hager (formerly Jack Swagger in WWE) coming down to the ring to help Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz, and Sammy Guevara lay out The Young Bucks, Cody, and Dustin Rhodes. In the post-show media scrum, AEW President Tony Khan revealed that Hager had been kept under wraps for over a month.

“You what’s cool about secret-keeping is Jake’s been signed for a really long time. Jake can clearly keep a secret, and so can we. We did a good job of keeping that one under. Before All Out, Jake was signed.”

Along with working for AEW, Hager will continue his commitment to Bellator MMA, where he is 2-0 as a professional. Hager is scheduled to fight again on Oct. 25.

“For his training, it’s something we’re going to have to account for,” said Khan. “He moved his camp to accommodate [AEW] but he’s also still in training and he’s [on a] good schedule with that. The AEW schedule, with working Wednesdays, allows him to make Wednesday the off-day and Thursday. So he can train, Friday to Tuesday. That’s what Jake’s doing right now. Jake’s a machine. As you saw at the end, he got a great reaction. For him to come in, he’s different than a lot of the high flying wrestlers we have. He’s a power house. I thought the stable, we’re gonna learn more about.”

When questioned if the five-man squad of Jericho, Hager, Santana & Ortiz, and Guevara are a stable, Khan said, “They looked really good together, didn’t they? It looked like a stable to me.”

Khan has made it no secret that, due to AEW’s lighter schedule, he will allow wrestlers to work other jobs. You can view his full comments on the matter by clicking here.

If you missed anything from AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful’s full report on the show.

If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t to Fightful for the transcription.