Jack Swagger Released

It's official. Jake Hager, better known as Jack Swagger has been granted his release from World Wrestling Entertainment. As per usual with other talents, Hager will have a 90 Day no compete clause, so we won't see him for some time. The interesting question is "What does the future hold for Swagger?"

Firstly, regardless of where he goes, expect a name change. WWE likely owns the rights to the name "Jack Swagger" though they wouldn't really try to merchandise anymore. Swagger shirts are still available on WWEshop.com, but I could see the price being substantially lowered in an effort to just get them out of inventory.

Secondly, Swagger did speak with Chael Sonnen about potentially going into MMA, but I wouldn't see this happening any time soon. In terms of wrestling and MMA, there are only a handful of athletes who have been truly able to shine. Brock Lesnar was a huge draw in UFC, Ken Shamrock and Dan Severn were the innovators, but no one else has been able to really be incredibly spectacular: Dave Bautistsa only had 1 fight (which he donated his portion of the purse to charity), CM Punk (who had an abysmal debut in UFC), Alberto del Rio (who fought in a mask for some reason). I wouldn't really see Hager's MMA prospects being much better. Sure, he might have a handful of fights; however, I don't think he would do anything long-term.

What I think he will do: He will likely go to Impact Wrestling. Now that Impact is going with the re-branded direction and Dutch Mantel (the former Zeb Colter) is in charge of creative, we could potentially see a reuniting between the two. Various stars from WWE have gone into the indys or Impact and completely reinvent themselves, so this could be just as good for Hager as anyone.

That being said, Hager has all of the talent in the world physically. And when Dutch was doing the promo work, he did a great job and accomplished what was supposed to be done.