Jake Hager Accuses Tony Khan of Treating Wrestlers Like Playthings

Jake Hager left AEW last year and it’s clear he isn’t really happy with how things turned out for him, as he just went nuclear on Tony Khan for not being a professional.

While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Jake Hager said he stopped loving wrestling after the second Blood and Guts match in Las Vegas with Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli. When his first AEW contract ended, he felt the negotiations were unfair and one-sided. He believed Tony Khan didn’t want him there anymore and was frustrated with the offer he got.

Hager said Khan only offered him an 18-month deal even though he had been part of big matches like Stadium Stampede, which he felt helped put AEW on the map. He thought this showed Khan didn’t value his work.

“It was right after the second Blood and Guts in Vegas with Daniel Bryan and Cesaro. My first contract with AEW was up, and after that, the negotiation process was very one-sided. I could tell he didn’t want me there. And I’ll say this every day, and everyone else should too: f*** Tony Khan.

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He offered me a year and a half. I was like, bro, I did Stadium Stampede twice—don’t act like Stampede didn’t put AEW on the map. I was in the debut episode, I was the big spoiler, and you offer me 18 months after all that?”

Jake Hager also didn’t like how Khan started running the company. After the CM Punk drama, the wrestlers held a private meeting with Sting, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Bryan Danielson, and Jon Moxley.

But Khan interrupted, came in yelling and forced them into a six-man tag with just minutes’ notice. Hager thought this was very disrespectful, especially since Khan also treated Sting that way while planning to honor him at retirement.

“It was that, and the way he started running the business—he wasn’t professional. After all the CM Punk stuff went down, the boys got together for a meeting. This was just us, no office people. Sting was there, Big Show, Jericho, Bryan, and Mox, all trying to talk us through the situation.

And then who storms in? Daddy’s little billionaire. He comes in yelling at us—I think it was Dax and Cash who didn’t like the storyline, so they didn’t come to TV that day. Tony was like, ‘Listen, I’ll put you in a six-man, six minutes before the show, and you’re gonna do it!’ And all of us felt disrespected. I wish I stood up and said more, because you just told Sting you’ll throw him in a six-man with six minutes notice, and then you’re gonna honor him for his retirement?”

Hager said the wrestlers became like playthings for Khan. They often had to wait outside his office, and Khan focused only on flashy debuts but couldn’t follow through with long-term stories.

Hager added that Khan couldn’t handle criticism, made mistakes and left the roster to deal with it. For Hager it was frustrating because the original group had helped build AEW from the ground up, but in the end, everything was run only the way Khan wanted.

“We became his little playthings. We had to wait outside his office. His storylines—he was good at debuts, but he could never carry anything through. It got to the point where you couldn’t tell him anything. He couldn’t take criticism, he was f***ing up, and we were all stuck dealing with it. We were there from the beginning, with our careers behind us, helping build that company. And then we had to just sit back and do nothing because he wanted to run it his way.”

This comes after Jake Hager also stated that he felt disrespected during his contract negotiations with AEW. He even accused Tony Khan of being a communist and threatening his job over his political stance. So at the end of the day, Hager is clearly unhappy with how Tony Khan ran the company and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Do you agree with Jake Hager’s criticism of Tony Khan, or is he just bitter after leaving AEW? Sound off in the comments.