Jack Swagger, a two-time World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) champion, requested his release from the company Tuesday. The pro wrestler revealed the news Wednesday to “Beyond the Fight” podcast host Chael Sonnen, saying that it was “a business decision.”
Swagger, who started wrestling at the age of five, also played football through his school years. He was an All-American amateur wrestler at the University of Oklahoma where he also played football during his freshman year. While he was growing up, inspiration were the professional wrestlers Danny Hodge and “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, both of whom helped Swagger rise, according to his biography on WWE.com.
Swagger’s amateur background brought him to the WWE, in a manner similar to legends such as Bob Backlund and WWE Hall of Famers Jack and Gerald Brisco. He made his debut in September 2008 in Deep South Wrestling, then a developmental territory for WWE. When WWE and Deep South Wrestling separated in 2007, Swagger moved to Ohio Valley Wrestling, which was known as Florida Championship Wrestling then, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
When Swagger was relatively unknown, he had appeared on WWE Raw as a security guard for a John Cena-Umaga match in 2006.
At WrestleMania XXVI held in March 2010, Swagger took the risk and took part in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, which is a match with 5-10 participants who try to recover a briefcase suspended 20 feet above the ring. The briefcase contains a contract that guarantees a match for the WWE World Championship or the WWE Universal Championship, according to WWE.com. That match brought Swagger a victory in the first-ever 10-Man Money in the Bank Ladder Match and the contract for a guaranteed World Title Match that comes with it.
When asked about his release from the WWE, Swagger said: “It’s still kind of an ongoing process right now.”
“Basically, it came down to contract negotiations, and we were way off. They didn’t value me at what I thought I was valued at,” he said.
He continued: “They weren’t giving me the opportunity to make the full amount of income I could for my family, so when you put it like that — it’s time to go. It gets very frustrating because we’re out there every night putting ourselves through car wrecks to entertain these fans — and we want to know we’re working towards something.”
Swagger further talked about his recent exclusions from big matches. However, he told Sonnen that he was ready to continue his career in Mexico, the U.K. and Japan — also pro wrestling hotspots.
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