One of the biggest shocks on AEW: Dynamite’s debut TNT show was the return to wrestling of former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger, now going by his real name Jake Hager.
While he has hit the odd move during beat downs on helpless foes, he has remained largely out of any physical action, and has not been booked in any matches.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason for this is that Hager has an agreement with MMA Promotion Bellator that he will not have a match before his scheduled fight with Anthony Garrett on October 25.
“His agreement was that he’s doing TV every week and taking Tuesday and Wednesdays as his days off training while training the other five days, but wouldn’t wrestle matches until after the fight to avoid the injury risk.”
While he was never the biggest or most popular star in WWE, he is being treated as a really big deal on Wednesday nights. Chris Jericho’s promo alone from last week proves what a star AEW believes Hager will be for the promotion.
Once Hager has had his October 25 fight and recovered from it, you can expect him to start having matches on weekly AEW TV.
