Jake Hager SLAMS Tony Khan, FTR Disputes Wild No-Show Claims (AEW News)

Having now retired from the pro wrestling ring, former AEW and WWE star Jake Hager has not held back in new comments about Tony Khan.

Speaking on the latest edition of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, the one-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion discussed his experiences with the AEW President, contract negotiations with Khan, and how his AEW exit left him feeling jaded.

On that AEW exit, Hager said it left him "very jaded", noting that he was "very proud of the stuff I did there", but that he wishes he "would have just stayed in MMA at some point".

Going into details about his first AEW contract renewal shortly after the second Blood and Guts match in June 2022, Jake described the negotiation process as "very one-way", before elaborating further:

"Anyways, I always find a way to say this every day, so I think everyone should, too. Say, ‘Fuck Tony Khan.’ I could tell he didn’t want me there. He offered me, like, a year and a half [new deal]. 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 [AEW 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, that it really, like, he wasn’t a professional."

Hager continued, detailing a meeting between the talent that was interrupted by Tony Khan:

"After all the Punk s**t that went down, the boys got together and we had a meeting, and this was the boys only, no office. Sting’s in there, [Big] Show [Paul Wight], Jericho, Bryan, Mox, they’re all standing at the front, kind of, like, talking us through this s**t. Lo and behold, who comes into the room, storming in? Daddy’s Little Billionaire. And he’s, like, yelling at us because, I think it was Dax [Harwood] and Cash Wheeler didn’t want to come in - they didn’t like the storylines, so they refused to come to TV that day - and he was, like, ‘Listen, I’ll put you in a six-man, six minutes before the show, and you’re gonna do it.’ And we’re all just, like, all feeling disrespected. And I still to this day wish I would have stood up and said, you know, a lot of things, but, like, you just told Sting that you’re going to put him in a six-man in six minutes, but then you’re going to honour him for his retirement."

Jake added:

"We became his little playthings, we had to wait outside his office. His storylines were very good at debuting, but he can never carry anything through, and it got to the point where you couldn’t tell him anything, he couldn’t take criticism, he was f**king 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.”

When asked by CVV about why he re-signed with AEW at that point, the former Jericho Appreciation Society man answered:

"I didn't know what I was going to do next. I will say that AEW paid well. I re-signed to give me more time to figure out what's next. We negotiated the contract a little bit longer, but the writing was on the wall, and I could see that from the way he treated me."

Having debuted with AEW on the inaugural Dynamite in October 2019, Jake Hager would remain with the promotion until his contract expired in May of last year, with reports at the time saying Jake opted against signing a new deal. Hager would wrestle a handful of independent dates throughout the second half of 2024, before formally announcing his retirement from the ring earlier this month.

To circle back to Jake's comments about FTR refusing to come to TV for that aforementioned talent meeting, Dax and Cash have both taken to social media to address those claims.

Firstly, Dax Harwood posted on X to clarify that he and Cash were at that meeting, and "Tony never interrupted." Harwood reiterated that he and his tag partner "have NEVER refused to show up to work", pointing out how FTR have one of the busiest schedules in the company when looking at their appearances on both Dynamite and Collision each week.

Added to that, Cash Wheeler quote-tweeted Dax's comments and included screenshots of a private conversation between Cash and Hager, where Jake apologised and noted how he didn't definitely say it was FTR who missed that meeting and refused to turn up for TV. Wheeler pointed out how this makes them look like "a**holes", while nicely adding, "We're a**holes, but we show up for work."

https://t.co/duHoGmnZf9 pic.twitter.com/uvAYSfEoW1

— Daniel “Cash” Wheeler (@CashWheelerFTR) August 26, 2025

If you use any of the above quotes, please link to Insight with Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WhatCulture Wrestling.