Jake Hager Says AEW Changed When Cody Rhodes Left & Claims Tony Khan Wouldn’t Respond To Chris Jericho For Weeks

A recent episode of Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast featured former AEW talent and wrestler Jake Hager as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hager’s thoughts about his belief that things within AEW began to change when Cody Rhodes left in early 2022 and his claims that AEW CEO Tony Khan would not respond to Chris Jericho for weeks.

“I was thinking about that today. 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.”

Hager also gave his thoughts about why AEW doesn’t have more writers like WWE does and him not being sure if AEW was a top priority for Khan due to the other businesses he’s involved in.

“You know why? Because this is [Tony’s] 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 fucking attention on it. Don’t make us wait until 5 PM to know what we’re doing that day. You’ve been in this business for a cup of coffee, 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 gave his thoughts about the only reason he decided to sign with AEW was due to Jericho and claimed Khan only cares about indie darling guys.

“The only reason why I got signed with AEW is because of Chris Jericho, so I’m very thankful for that. Tony wanted nothing to do with me because I was from the fed and he’s an indie darling guy, and I dare you to argue with me about that. He wants flips and hamburgers and hot dogs and not storylines.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com