Jack Swagger On His WWE Creative Tipping Point

It’s rare to see a multi-time World Champion fade into a forgotten star in the WWE, but that’s exactly what happened with former star, Jack Swagger. Swagger, who left the company earlier this year, joined the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast to discuss how WWE taking away Zeb Coulter and the ‘We The People’ gimmick became the beginning of the end for his career.

“It wasn’t the tipping point; it was just another thing added on to the long list of the same thing of where it is very hard to get momentum going, and it is even harder to be natural like “We The People” had become. “

We The People” was transforming into a whole different climate, and it was no longer a political movement it was simply a movement for the people and it was not more evident than when I went out of the country and went to Mexico and these were the very people we spoke of so harshly and they would stand up and say “We The People”. It was such a cool movement, and it transformed so naturally, and they tried to cut it off on so many levels, but it kept coming back.

They took Cesaro away from The Real Americans and tried to cut off “We The People”, we turned baby face, we wrestle a Russian, we have one of the biggest matchups of the year and one of the biggest matches of my career against Rusev, and I turned baby face instantly over night. That is “We The People”.

After that, nothing and they cut the legs out from it again. I am not complaining because I am very grateful for the ten year career I had, and that is way above average, but it is just another thing because it is not my company and I don’t make the business decisions, but one thing that Dutch always said about these types of things that I always took to heart was; “You can either do it, or you can go start your own wrestling promotion.” So when you put it like that, it puts it in perspective.”

As far as the specifics of his WWE exit, Swagger admits he wants to grow his brand to the point where WWE wants to bring him back.

“The main thing was my contract wasn’t up until January ’18, and they picked up an option (which they only had the option for) I didn’t have any control over it, and they picked it up and extended it for another year. The timing of when they did that was when they took Dutch (Zeb Colter) away from me and put him with Alberto, so it was kind of like a two-fold punch in the face.

About six months after that I felt like I needed to renegotiate and it was now the brand split again and moving me back to Smackdown, so I was thinking maybe we are going to do something and for whatever reason, they didn’t like me over there, so I said let us push the contract negotiations. Pretty much they told me that I deserved a raise and they wanted to sign me for another five years and into my 40s.

What they were offering and what I had averaged over the decade that I had worked for them was way off. So after ten years with the company, I needed a change and like I said earlier I need to journey out and become the best professional wrestler I can but also I needed a change to make them miss me and want me back. I need to make them want me, and the main thing is they were not growing my brand anymore. Bottom line.”

You can download the full episode here.

[H/T WrestlingInc]