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Jake Hager says AEW changed when Cody Rhodes left

Posted: Aug 28th 2025 By: Ian Carey

Following his comments about AEW to Chris Van Vliet earlier this week, Jake Hager had more to say during a recent interview with Bill Apter, Dutch Mantell, and Dr. Chris Featherstone of Sportskeeda.

Hager was critical of Tony Khan’s booking, saying he can help create a big debut but isn’t able to craft storylines that last.

Hager said:

“He can’t make himself a sandwich, let alone write a storyline that will at last. He can spend a lot of money and make a big debut and make a lot of fireworks.”

Hager said he believes things in AEW began to change when Cody Rhodes left in early 2022.

“I think everything changed after (Cody Rhodes) left because he was involved with it and after that, it just kind of became a free for all. Young Bucks and Kenny still had a big say in what they were doing. Chris obviously still had a big say in what he was doing, but even Chris, he would tell me that Tony would not respond to his messages for like two weeks.“

Hager says he’s not sure if AEW was a top priority for Khan considering the other businesses he is involved with.

“It became a point to where either AEW is important or it’s not. It just seems like it was not to him because they stopped doing production meetings, they stopped doing anything to make the show timely. We would be waiting around till like 5:00 PM to find out what we’re doing that day.”

Hager says the only reason he was ever signed to AEW was because of Chris Jericho.

“The only reason why I got signed with AEW is because of Chris Jericho, so I’m very thankful for that. Tony wanted nothing to do with me because I was from the fed and he’s an indie darling guy, and I dare you to argue with me about that. He wants flips and hamburgers and hot dogs and not storylines.”