Jake Hager recently joined nearly the rest of the Jericho Appreciation Society in turning their backs on the founder and namesake of the faction, Chris Jericho. The only man to keep the door open to returning to the now-disbanded faction was Sammy Guevara, whom Jericho is now in a program with. Hager and Guevara are both holdovers from Jericho’s previous stable, The Inner Circle, which was founded back in 2019.
When not serving as the muscle for Jericho in the ring for the past four years, Hager has been flexing his own in Bellator, where he has been competing in MMA matches. Hager holds a 3-0-1 record inside the cage, with his most recent win coming on October 29, 2020, over Brandon Calton at Bellator 250. During a K&S WrestleFest signing, Hager discussed why he made the call to transition to MMA after years of success in pro wrestling.
“When I left WWE, my plan was to go to MMA, get really good, be undefeated, and then go back to WWE and wrestle Roman Reigns at WrestleMania,” he said. “It took a little slight turn, and a lot of that happened, but, you know, we were close. I’d kick Roman’s butt, though. He knows it, I know it. If you want to tell him that, go ahead and tell him that.”
Hager versus the Tribal Chief seems unlikely at the moment as the two men are not even signed to the same promotion. The door, however, is open to other opportunities, and Hager was pressed about what his MMA future looks like.
“Officially, I’m retired from MMA,” he revealed. “I trained hard last year, but Bellator was jerking me off. So, I retired, and I’m just focusing on wrestling now.”
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