Welcome to Wrestler quotes of Genius. Where we take a look at things wrestlers said and determine what went wrong, While parodying an over 20 year old ad campaign.
"It was a stupid idea from bad creative..."
This statement came from the early days of All Elite Wrestling, and was made by Chris Jericho, but what was it in reference to? Jericho said this on episode 2 of Dynamite on October 9th 2019, making an attempt to stop the crowd from chanting "We the people", the WWE gimmick of Jake Hager. Jericho actually breaks his train of thought to shut the fans down. He's done this at other times too, famously hating being called his old Y2J nickname.
To be fair to Chris Jericho, the reason he said this was likely because he was trying to create a divide between Hager's time in WWE and his new identity in AEW, and probably to also stop fans chanting a phrase WWE maybe even still had a trademark for. When you put it like that what, Jericho said was actually clever as he shut down the chant then and there, but it's the latter part of the statement that inspired me to make this video. In the early days AEW tried harder to separate themselves from the market leader. Whether they do that enough these days is is a debate for another time, but back then they were at least making an effort to be an alternative brand. They haven't yet sunk to TNA levels of pettiness like when Road Dogg and Daddy A- nah Billy Gunn spent weeks challenging Triple H and Shawn Michaels to a fight at the Alamo, only for both to go back to WWE and even have a tag title run a few years later, but we're maybe not far off.
I'm not a fan of Jack Swagger/ Jake Hager really at all, and I haven't ever been really, but even I can admit that he achieved a fair amount of success in his WWE run, even having a World title reign to his name, well, his old name. The most I was ever invested in him as a fan would have been his time with Zeb Colter, more commonly known as Dutch Mantel, which is where the "We the People" phrase emanates. To be more specific I really liked his team with Cesaro. The man now known as Claudio Castagnoli and Hager actually had a pretty good match back in July 2022 on a Fyter Fest edition of Dynamite, that I totally forgot had happened until I was writing this video. That is a perfect reflection on Hager's AEW career, in which he has had 60 matches since February 2020, and not many that are memorable.
The Inner Circle days were, to be fair alright. His first match in the promotion occurred at Revolution 2020, at which Hager defeated Dustin Rhodes in a match most notable for two things. Firstly the build which started with Hager in storyline breaking Dustin's arm in a car door, in which the plank of wood that was there to protect Dustin's arm was visible in shot thus killing the drama of the segment, and during the match itself Jake's wife who hadn't previously been involved was for some reason creating a distraction from ringside, and never seen again in AEW after this night. Jake would during the Daily's place era of shows have a World title match with Jon Moxley, but his highlight in AEW might well have been the Stadium Stampede match at Double or Nothing 2021. Thats the second one where the Inner Circle faced the Pinnacle. The match started as a pre-tape like the first had a year earlier, and ended live in the ring surrounded by one of the first full crowds AEW was able to have. The Inner Circle ended the night by taking a bow in what was a feel good moment, now that live crowds were starting to come back to wrestling as a whole.
Ever since the Inner Circle ended Jake has been without much direction, recently relying on a purple bucket hat being a key aspect of his character. Let me put that a different way and I really want you to think about this. They took a legit tough guy, a former WWE World champion, and a legit MMA fighter and gave him an inanimate prop. He 's essentially the modern day Perry Saturn. When they finally killed that gimmick, Danhausen spoiled that by returning with the hat, Post Inner circle, Hager has been a bit of an afterthought, yes he was part of the Jericho Appreciation Society, but he hasn't really felt like an important part of the roster for a fair while.
If I were to guess why Jake Hagers AEW booking has been so perplexing, I'd say it's because his AEW tenure has been so tied to Chris Jericho. According to Jericho himself, he requested that Hager be hired by AEW largely due to an incident that occurred in Abu Dhabi where Hager saved Jericho after he had an altercation in a night club. Again, according to Jericho who has told this story a few times on various podcasts, the person he had an issue with put a seven million dollar bounty on his life, and Hager through this time protected him. If there is truth to this story, which I'm not saying there is or isn't, I completely understand Jericho backing a man who apparently saved his life, but when you listen to Jericho tell the story it feel very reminiscent of some tall tale Hulk Hogan might tell. Like how he was nearly in Metallica or was offered the George Foreman Grill but turned it down, both of which have been debunked by the way.
The downside of Jericho's link with Hager is that when Jericho doesn't need him to be part of what he is doing, Hager seems to float along without any direction. In 2023, Jake Hager hasn't won a single match on television, with his four wins occurring on AEW Dark and Elevation which aren't even a thing anymore. His last win came in April of this year in a six man tag on Elevation. In 2022 he won three out of twelve matches, admittedly one of those was on TV and one was Anarchy in the Arena on Pay Per View. When he isn't wrestling he is usually seen standing behind Angelo Parker and Daddy Magic.
When you look at that quote, "a stupid idea from bad creative", was the purple hat any better than We the People? Was the Jericho Appreciation Society any better? Sometimes words come back to bite you like a snake eating it's own tail, which ironically was part of the Inner Circle's logo.
Sources:
Jericho/Hager Abu Dhabi story: https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2021/05/chris-jericho-recalls-bounty-being-put-on-him-during-wwe-tour/
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