Ranking Every AEW Surprise Debut From Worst To Best
9. Jake Hager
It's been a strange old run in AEW for Jake Hager.
The legit tough All-American grappler was one of the first major surprises that AEW pulled from its sleeve, and he even went on a six-month undefeated streak upon debuting with the company. Yet here we are, over a year on from Hager's AEW bow, and he feels every inch the afterthought he was in WWE.
Said AEW bow came at the close of the inaugural episode of AEW Dynamite, with the former Jack Swagger turning up to lay out the Young Bucks and Cody and Dustin Rhodes alongside what would soon become known as the Inner Circle.
Sure, it was certainly eye-catching to see this one-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion appear on AEW television. But while there was an initial pop to this debut, there was still that nagging feeling that, well, this is Jack Swagger.
During his WWE tenure, Hager was warmed up to be perceived as a big deal at certain points in time, yet he never truly felt like a genuine major player regardless of what the company did with him. As ever, was this simply a case of WWE not knowing how best to use a talent, and would a change of environment bring that 'it factor' to the fore'?
From what's been seen so far, Jake Hager seems destined to just be the imposing goon who menacingly looks on while others chat sh*t. Despite that, though, his actual surprise AEW arrival itself was certainly a notable moment in the promotion's history.