Jake Hager, known in WWE as Jack Swagger, recently recounted his experiences in the Rumble match. In an interview with Fightful, Hager revealed that although the match may be a favourite amongst fans, Jake does not share their enthusiasm:
“[The Royal Rumble is] Definitely not one of my favourite matches. Depending on who you’re in there with, you’ll have levels of creativity and you’ll have levels of restriction. There was a group of three or four guys who decide the whole storyline throughout the thing. Then you would try to implement your stuff to make it a fit to your storyline type deal and it can be easy or it can be difficult.”
Hager made his debut in the Royal Rumble match in 2010. Although entering at number 26, he was soon eliminated by Kofi Kingston. Jake appeared in a total of six Rumble matches. Though never a winner of the match, Hager is a former ECW, United States and World Heavyweight champion.
During the 2016 Royal Rumble, Jake Hager would win a match on the pre-show to qualify for the main event. Despite his earlier victory, Jake would find himself eliminated in a matter of seconds by Brock Lesnar. Hager recalls that pay-per-view as a particularly good payday:
“The time I was in there was the shortest where Lesnar just threw me out. I really think that was my favourite because that was the most I got paid for a Royal Rumble with the shortest time. Who knows how they decided to pay us. But, for some reason, that was a good payday for me. It was literally seven seconds. It was like duck a clothesline, F-5, see ya.”
Credit to Fightful for the transcription.
Inside The Ropes will have live coverage of this year’s Royal Rumble when it takes place on January 31st.