Former pro-wrestler Jake Hager has had a lot to say about AEW and owner, booker Tony Khan since leaving the company.
Speaking to Bill Apter, Chris Featherstone and Dutch Mantell recently, he explained that Cody Rhodes’ departure changed the atmosphere and direction of AEW.
“I think everything changed after he left because he was involved with it, and after that, it just kind of became a free-for-all. Young Bucks and Kenny still had a big say in what they were doing. Chris (Jericho), obviously, has a big say in what he’s doing. Even Chris, he would tell me that Tony would not respond to his messages for two weeks. It became a point where, either AEW is important or it’s not. It just seemed like it was not to him. They stopped doing production meetings. They stopped doing anything to make the show timely. We would be waiting around to 5 PM to find out what we were doing that day. What live television show does that? Only one with money behind it,” he said.
On Chris Van Vliet’s “Insight” podcast, Hager continued his criticism. He lashed out at Khan’s inexperience.
“Tony Khan, who has been in this business for a cup of coffee can’t make himself a sandwich let alone write a storyline that will last. He can spend a lot of money and make a big debut and make a lot of firework but in the end run he is in charge and we’re supposed to trust him to make storylines that make our careers that we’re investing in his company,” he said revealing that Khan continues to do all of the booking himself essentially because he is surrounded by ‘Yes Men’ who don’t criticize him.
According to Hager, Khan cannot take criticism either.
“We became his little playthings. We had to wait outside his office….It got to the point where you couldn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t take criticism. He was f—–g up and we were all just having to deal with it, you know? We all had blood, sweat and tears put into that company. We were all there at the beginning. We all had our careers behind us that helped build that company and then we all had to just sit side-by-side and couldn’t do anything because he wanted to run it the way he wanted to run it,” he said.
Hager was asked why Khan doesn’t have help. Hager responded: “You know why? Because this is his toy box and nobody else can play with his toys but him. It’s so mind-blowing. Tony himself will always talk about, ‘I have so many businesses. I have a soccer club in England. I have this other business.’ Either AEW is important or it’s not. Put some f—–g attention on it. Don’t make us wait until 5 PM to know what we’re doing that day. You have no idea what you’re doing and you can’t admit that you’re making mistakes. Admit that you’re making mistakes and then people can work with you. Other than that, if you want to act like you’re holier than thou and you know everything is perfect in pro wrestling, okay, good luck.”
Hager also wasn’t happy with the last deal Khan offered him.
“I always find a way to say this every day so I think everyone should, too. Say: ‘F–k Tony Khan.’ I could tell he didn’t want me there. He offered me a year and a half. I was, like, ‘Bro, I just did Stadium Stampede twice. Don’t act like Stadium Stampede didn’t put AEW on the map. I was in the debut Dynamite episode. I was the big spoiler and you offer me 18 months, after all that?’ So, it was that and the way that he started running the business. He wasn’t a professional,” he said.
