Jake Hager is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Jake Hager. He has also competed in several promotions such as WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) (2006-2017), 5 Star Wrestling (2018), Lucha Underground (2018), Major League Wrestling (2018), and AEW (All Elite Wrestling) (2019–present). His major titles include the 5 Star Wrestling Championship, the All-Star Wrestling Heavyweight Championship, the FCW (Florida Championship Wrestling) Heavyweight Championship, the Lucha Underground Championship, the WCR (World Class Revolution) Heavyweight Championship, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE United States Championship and more. Additionally, he has also dabbled in mixed martial arts and had signed up with Bellator MMA in 2017, competing in the heavyweight division. As of 24th August 2021, he is #10 in the Bellator Heavyweight Rankings. He is a member of The Inner Circle alongside Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Santana and Ortiz.
ONE heavyweight champ Arjan Bhullar wants a match with Jake Hager or Bobby Lashley
Arjan Bhullar took out Brandon Vera to be crowned just the second ONE heavyweight champion since the promotion’s 2011 start. The Canadian-Indian arrived in ONE Championship in 2019 having gone 3-1 in the octagon. Currently riding a four-fight winning streak with a world title wrapped around his shoulder, Bhullar’s stock has never been higher. Now that he has the spotlight, the big man has called for his shot in pro wrestling. He said “If it’s WWE I want Bobby Lashley and if it’s AEW I want Jake Hager. Because they’re both supposed to be tough guys – they’re both Bellator fighters. Lashley’s an ATT guy, their guys are Bellator guys and you know Coker’s not going to allow me to cross over like a heavyweight in terms of MMA so why not crossover in the squared circle and knock off one of his guys there? It gets ONE’s leg up on Bellator and gets my arm raised, gets me some gold. And just grows my ego.”
What is Jake Hager Known For?
- Being a professional wrestler as well as a mixed martial artist.
- Being currently signed to AEW (All Elite Wrestling) under the ring name Jake Hager.
- For his time in WWE under the ring name “Jack Swagger”.
Source: @independent.co.uk
What is Jake Hager Real Name? Details About His Parents, Family, Education
Jake Hager was born on 24th March 1982 in Perry, Noble County, Oklahoma, the USA. He holds American nationality and his ethnic background is American-white. His race is White. His Zodiac sign is Aries and he follows the Christian religion. His real name is Donald Jacob Hager Jr. He has not disclosed anything regarding his parents, and siblings’ details to the media. He started wrestling at the age of five. He wrestled in high school with Danny Hodge’s grandson and remains good friends with Hodge as he grew up living two blocks away from him in Perry, Oklahoma. His present age is 39 as of 2021.
About his educational qualification, he joined the University of Oklahoma as a 2-sport athlete, participating in both football and wrestling. He was the second-string defensive tackle behind eventual National Football League players Tommie Harris and Dusty Dvoracek. Later, he stopped playing football and concentrated fully on wrestling his sophomore year. He had graduated from there in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. Following his graduation, he was going to work with a firm in Dallas, Texas, but signed with WWE after they offered a contract the day he was scheduled to start.
Jake Hager Wrestling Career Timeline
- Jake Hager’s professional career began in 2006. He had a WWE tryout in Deep South Wrestling (DSW), and in September under his real name, and made his in-ring debut for DSW, defeating Antonio Mestre in a dark match. He then moved to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in January 2007 and made his debut match against Atlas DaBone where he defeated Atlas.
- During his time in the developmental territories, he appeared as a security guard during a brawl between John Cena and Umaga on Raw.
- He was reassigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in August 2007. On 15th February 2008, at the Florida State Fair in Tampa, Florida, Hager and Ted DiBiase Jr. were the final two men remaining in a 23-man battle royal to determine the two contenders for the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship. Later, he defeated Miller to become the undisputed heavyweight champion in FCW.
- He lost his first match in the form of a Raw dark match, at the TV taping on 18th August 2008, when he lost to William Regal. Likewise, he lost to D’Lo Brown in a dark match, before defeating Jamie Noble in a dark match prior to a SmackDown taping on August 29. Again, he lost the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship to Sheamus O’Shaunessy on 18th September after debuting for the ECW brand.
- He made his debut on the ECW brand under the ring name Jack Swagger on 9th September 2008. In addition, he defeated Dreamer in a normal match and an “Amateur Wrestling Challenge” competition.
- He next defeated Matt Hardy to win his first title in WWE on 13th January 2009.
- His undefeated streak in the singles competition ended on 3rd February when he was defeated by Fit Finlay. He began a feud with the returning Christian, who he lost the ECW Championship at Backlash, ending his reign at 104 days at No Way Out. Again, he regains the title against Christian at Judgment Day and in a triple threat hardcore match at Extreme Rules.
- He was traded to the Raw brand on 29th June 2009, making his debut as part of a three-on-one gauntlet match against WWE Champion Randy Orton.
- On 1st March 2010, in the episode of Raw, he defeated Santino Marella to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXVI where he won.
- He then went on to defeat Chris Jericho to win the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time and subsequently joined the SmackDown brand.
- He won the fight via disqualification against Jerry Lawler on the March 28 episode of Raw after Lawler attacked him with a steel chair. He was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2011 supplemental draft on 26th April.
- He won the United States Championship for the first time by defeating Zack Ryder on 16th January 2012. Later, on the June 25 episode of Raw, he lost to Santino Marella for the United States Championship.
- On 1st February 2013, he returned to SmackDown and made his in-ring return by defeating Kofi Kingston. In June, Swagger took a leave absence to undergo surgery on his hand, which sidelined him for the remainder of the month. He returned o 1st July on the episode of Raw.
- At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, he alongside Cesaro competed in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match but were both unsuccessful as the match was won by Damien Sandow. The following night on Raw, Swagger, and Cesaro, now billed as The Real Americans, teamed together for the first time but ended up being defeated by The Usos.
- He then entered the 2014 Royal Rumble match at entrant #7 but was eliminated by Kevin Nash. He also became the #1 Contender for the Intercontinental Championship after winning a Fatal 4-Way match, defeating Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, and Mark Henry on the February 14 episode of SmackDown.
- After ‘The Real Americans’ split, he would feud with Cesaro, with Rob Van Dam also being drawn into the feud, with the three competing in a triple threat elimination match at Extreme Rules, which Cesaro won.
- At TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, he challenged Rusev for the United States Championship where he lost the fight to Rusev. Later, at the 2015 Tribute to the Troops event, Swagger defeated Rusev by submission in a “Boot Camp” match.
- On the July 4 episode of Raw, he was part of the main event, where he teamed with “Team USA”, which consisted of himself, Big Show, Kane, Apollo Crews, Mark Henry, Zack Ryder, and The Dudley Boyz, in a 16-man elimination tag team match, in which their team was victorious over “The Multinational Alliance”, which consisted of Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio and The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara).
- He was drafted to the Raw brand in the 2016 WWE draft. He faced Jinder Mahal in a losing effort on the September 12 episode of Raw.
- On 1st March 2017, he announced on Chael Sonnen’s podcast that he had requested his release from WWE. Finally, on 13th March 2017, it was announced that WWE had officially granted Hager his release.
- He then returned to professional wrestling on the independent circuit in the year 2017. In addition, he announced (using his Jack Swagger ring name) that he would be joining the House of Hardcore 2017 Australian tour which consisted of four events between June 16 and 24, 2017.
- Moreover, he joined 5 Star Wrestling and won the heavyweight title, defeating John Morrison in February 2018.
- He also defeated MVP to become the Imperial Wrestling Revolution champion on 20th April 2018.
- He made his debut as a heel on 28th June 2018 on the second episode of season 4 of Lucha Underground. Under the name of “The Savage” Jake Strong, he joined Infamous Inc. with Sammy Guevara and Big Bad Steve, facing the Trios Champions The Mack, Son of Havoc, and Killshot.
- On 17th October, he won a 7-man battle royal by last eliminating AR Fox, and that same night, he defeated Johnny Mundo. Moreover, he won a seven-to-seven survive elimination match to win the Lucha Underground Gift of the Gods Championship.
- On 3rd May 2018, he made his Major League Wrestling debut against Jeff Cobb.
- He debuted in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on the inaugural episode of “Dynamite” on 2nd October 2019. His in-ring debut match for AEW occurred on 29th February 2020 at Revolution, where he defeated Dustin Rhodes.
- He was attacked by Job Moxley On on March 25, 2020, episode of “Dynamite”. On the March 31, 2020, episode of AEW Dark, he attacked Moxley as revenge. The rivalry resulted in an Empty Arena No Holds Barred match for the “AEW World Championship” on the 15th April 2020 episode of Dynamite, where he lost to Moxley, marking his first loss in AEW.
Mixed Martial Artist Career Timeline
- Jake Hager announced on 13th November stating that he had signed to fight for Bellator MMA as part of their heavyweight division. It was announced on 3rd December 2018 that Hager would be making his debut against J.W. Kiser at Bellator 214. In his debut, he won the fight via submission at 2:09 of the first round.
- During his second fight, he won against T.J. Jones on 11th May 2019 at Bellator 221. For his third fight with the promotion, he faced Anthony Garrett at Bellator 231 on 25th October 2019. The bout ended in a no contest early into the first round after Hager landed two unintentional groin strikes to Garrett, the latter rendering Garrett unable to continue.
- He faced Brandon Calton at Bellator 250 on 29th October 2020. He won the bout via split decision.
Source: @mymmanews
Jake Hager Book
- Jake Hager released the first issue of his biographical comic book series, “You Don’t Know Jack: The Jake Hager Story”, through publisher Squared Circle Comics in March 2019.
Awards, Achievements, Championships
National Collegiate Athletic Association
- University of Oklahoma single-season record for most pins in the 285 pounds (129 kg) weight class (30)
- 2006 Collegiate All-American
Professional wrestling
5 Star Wrestling
- 5 Star Wrestling Championship (1 time)
All Elite Wrestling
- Dynamite Award (2 times)
“Bleacher Report PPV Moment of the Year” (2021) – Stadium Stampede match (The Elite vs. The Inner Circle) – Double or Nothing (May 23)
“Biggest Beatdown” (2021) – The Inner Circle jumping Orange Cassidy – Dynamite (June 10)
All Star Wrestling
- All Star Wrestling Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
The Baltimore Sun
- Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2010)
Florida Championship Wrestling
- FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Imperial Wrestling Revolution
- IWR Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Lucha Underground
- Lucha Underground Championship (1 time)
- Lucha Underground Gift of the Gods Championship (1 time)
Northeast Wrestling
- NEW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling
- PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 18 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2009
World Class Revolution
- WCR Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Entertainment / WWE
- ECW Championship (1 time)
- World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWE United States Championship (1 time)
- Money in the Bank (2010)
- Bragging Rights Trophy (2010) – with Team SmackDown (Big Show, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Alberto Del Rio, Edge and Tyler Reks)
Is Jake Hager Married? Know About His Wife
Jake Hager is a married man. He married his beautiful wife, Catalina White. By profession, Catalina White is a well-known model, actress, and singer. Their wedding took place in December 2010. They started dating each other in 2009. They have two children together; a son named Knox Stribling Hager and a daughter named Presley Pearl (b. 2015). Besides Catalina White, he has no extra affairs and extramarital news. They are very supportive and loyal to each other. His sexual orientation is straight and he is not gay. As of today, the family is currently residing in Tampa, Florida, the USA.
Source: @instagram.com/realjakehager
Back then, he was arrested in Gulfport, Mississippi on 19th February 2013, after a SmackDown taping. He was charged with driving under the influence and possession of marijuana. Hager was released from custody after the arrest and was ordered to appear in court on 12th March 2013. He was then scheduled to stand trial on 25th June 2013, in Mississippi. The marijuana charge was dismissed after he was fined $500, and sentenced to six months probation with his two-day jail sentence being suspended.
Source: @instagram.com/realjakehager
What is Jake Hager Net Worth? Know About His Personal Lifestyle
Jake Hager is a professional wrestler as well as the former World Heavyweight Champion whose net worth is estimated to have $3 Million as of 2021. His major source of wealth comes from his wrestling career and he is satisfied with his earnings. He is living a luxurious lifestyle at present. Whereas his exact salary and earning are unavailable at a moment.
Jake Hager: Height, Weight, Eyes Color
Jake Hager, with an athletic body build, has a perfect and tall height of 6 ft 9 in or 2.05 m. His well-maintained body weight consists of 125 Kg or 275.5 lbs. His hair color is light brown and he has a pair of green eyes. He has a tones physique with a towering frame and spiked hair. His other body measurements are unknown at a moment. Overall, he has got a healthy body with a charming personality.
Source: Gossip
