Jake Hager had to announce his retirement; otherwise, who would have known?

Jake Hager, an All-American college wrestler who had a brief run as the WWE World Champion in 2010, and was a background figure in AEW for five years, confirmed this week that he’s retired from pro wrestling, though you know what that means.

Nobody is ever really “retired” from pro wrestling; they’re just waiting for their next booking.

Which seems to be the case with Hager, who’s just 43, and hasn’t been all that active since he left WWE in 2017, working just 78 matches since 2019.

His last match in AEW was a loss to Roderick Strong on the Feb. 11, 2024, “Rampage,” after which he requested, and was granted, his release.

He worked a few independent shows in the summer and early fall against a lineup of mostly guys you’ve not heard of, with Rhett Titus, James Storm and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor thrown in for good measure.

The indy bookings came to an abrupt end due to some self-inflicted damage.

Ahead of the presidential election, Hager decided to complain on the socials about Tony Khan, who he labeled a “communist,” pressuring him “to be silent, or else,” regarding politics, which made no sense, because he wasn’t working with Khan anymore.

Hager then posted his support for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, and said he’s “against killing babies,” which, fine, it’s your constitutional right to be a jackass, if you want to be.

That resulted in the self-inflicted damage, in the form of canceled independent bookings – which almost certainly is the impetus behind his all of the sudden “retirement” announcement, nearly a year later.

We can translate “retirement” to, “the phone ain’t ringin’.”

“I’m getting out of wrestling. I’m pretty much, I could say I’m retired from it,” Hager said in an interview, if you can call it that, on the podcast of another wrestler-in-transition, Saraya-Jade Bevis.

Hager said he has started a trucking company, which sounds like, you know, something to do.

“I’m not driving, not me. I got people driving. I’m excited, something to sink my teeth into,” Hager said.

Trucking is a hard business to make money in, which is a way of saying, Jake Hager will be at a middle school gym or rec center near you at some point, taking the fall to your local hero for $500 and trans.