AEW star shares details of Vince McMahon breaking up popular tag team; calls it "biggest regret"
Several wrestlers in AEW were not completely satisfied with their time in the former promotion they worked for. One such unhappy wrestler was former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Jake Hager. He recently revealed that his biggest regret was Vince McMahon's decision to break up the Real Americans faction.
Back in 2013, Jake Hager (Jack Swagger in WWE) joined forces with Dutch Mantell (fka Zeb Colter) and Claudio Castagnoli (fka Cesaro) forming the Real Americans. They were a 'heel' faction that went with the catchphrase 'We the People'.
A year later, Vince McMahon made the decision of splitting up the faction and gave Claudio a solo run. The Swiss Cyborg joined hands with Paul Heyman, but in a matter of four months, that storyline was dropped as well.
Jake Hager was the special guest on Storytime with Dutch Mantell. During the interview, Hager reflected on the time when he and Claudio split up. He mentioned that the faction was building up and would have done well but Vince McMahon had other ideas. He regretted the decision but when Triple H informed the plans to them he kept his opinions to himself.
“I would say this was my biggest regret is in this moment, we were all ringside, we were there with Triple H and he was explaining to us what was happening. I didn’t say anything and I wish I would have, I knew that once you change one dynamic of the group that it was all going to change, but it’s what they wanted," Jake Hager said. [02:30 - 02:54]
Jake Hager was also upset as the Chairman did not give Claudio enough time to get over with the fans during his run with Paul Heyman.
"It could have been good I guess, but it was just so overnight and forced that it was going to take time and they weren’t going to give it any time," [03:26 - 03:36]
AEW's Jake Hager understands why WWE wanted to split up the Real Americans
While speaking in the same interview, the AEW star mentioned that the idea was to make Claudio Castagnoli the next big thing as he was one of the hottest stars in the company back then.
“So, here’s the thing, at that time Claudio… Antonio… whatever his name is, he was on fire. He was super hot. But also, ‘we the people’ were really like coming together. I think they put us together in the Summer of 2013 and this (Claudio joining Paul Heyman) was the day after Mania in New Orleans in 2014,” [01:56 - 02:26].
But since that plan was dropped, the current AEW star was bumped down to the lower card in WWE.
Do you think Hager and Claudio could join forces in AEW? Let us know in the comments section below.
Please credit Storytime with Dutch Mantell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda when you use any quotes from this article.