Jake Hager reflected on winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship while talking with Chris Jericho.
Hager went by the name of Jack Swagger in WWE and in March 2010, he was the holder of the Money in the Bank briefcase. This allowed him to cash-in to challenge for the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship at any moment.
Ultimately, he won the World Heavyweight Title by beating Jericho. However, original plans called for him to win the WWE Title from John Cena.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Hager talked about how things change.
“I had a little inclination, but I had no idea what was going to happen. The night before, I teased it on Raw. I hit Cena with the briefcase, I snuck up on him when he had one of his brilliant promo segments. Later, come to find out, he refused to do the job for me for the [WWE] Championship. We won’t talk about that. Ugh. ‘The most unselfish top man in the business.”
Hager also recalled how his night to win the title came about as he was in Phoenix and got a call about coming to Vegas. He got to the arena early and he’s waiting around for a meeting to start. He saw John Laurinaitis go into an office room then Jericho and Edge. He entered the room to get more details.
Hager recalled Jericho telling him to not screw up this chance and was being dead serious and very sincere. This made him think of his wrestling coach and that was the start of him looking up to Jericho while knowing that he knew he could trust him.
The title change happened on an episode of SmackDown in less than a week after he won the Money in the Bank briefcase at WrestleMania XXVI.
