During an interview with WINCLY, Jake Hager discussed the differences between his character in AEW and his character in the WWE. Here are the highlights:

On How His Character Has Changed Now That He’s In AEW:

As cool as Jack Swagger was, he felt choreographed. I look at that as a 20-year-old Jake Hager. Now, Jake Hager is in his 30’s, he’s been around the world a couple of times, he’s got culture, he’s got experience. He’s just a, smarter, more well-developed human being.

On The Differences Between Pro Wrestling & MMA:

The biggest difference so far is the rest days that I have. We normally train Monday through Friday, when my training partners are available, and we’d take the weekends off. Now, with AEW on Wednesday nights on TNT, we changed Wednesday’s-Thursday’s to our rest days and Friday’s-Tuesday’s as our work days. It is an exhausting grind, and I have to be really focused on getting my rest on those days off and getting the proper nutrition so I can come home and start right back up again. I can’t miss a beat because it is a short window that I have.

On Being Excited About Future Opponents In Both AEW & Bellator:

At AEW they have such a great roster. Off the top of my head, I can name ten people I want to wrestle there. Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, The Young Bucks, Rey Fenix, Penta. There are so many guys there that would be a fresh matchup for the Jack Swagger/Jake Hager-style. In MMA, I’m very excited about the heavyweight division. I definitely want to fight (Heavyweight Champion) Ryan Bader. I would love to fight Fedor Emelianenko in Russia, maybe we can make that happen. As for a third, can I say a politician? Chuck Schumer.

You can listen to the podcast below:

Credit: WINCLY.