{"id":50229,"date":"2017-10-31T12:32:49","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T17:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=50229"},"modified":"2017-10-31T12:32:49","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T17:32:49","slug":"interview-highlights-jack-swagger-talks-departure-wwe-regrets-potential-mma-career-c-m-punk-ufc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/10\/31\/interview-highlights-jack-swagger-talks-departure-wwe-regrets-potential-mma-career-c-m-punk-ufc\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview Highlights: Jack Swagger talks about departure from WWE, any regrets, potential MMA career, C.M. Punk in UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3658386024\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><em>Jack Swagger was interviewed by The Wrestling Estate ahead of a charity indy event he&#8217;s headlining this weekend called WrestleJam16. Here are highlights supplied to PWTorch by John Corrigan&#8230; (<a href=\"http:\/\/thewrestlingestate.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/30\/10\/\">FULL INTERVIEW LINK<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Was there a certain moment when you decided to leave or was it a bunch of factors piled up?<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-tag\" data-ad-name=\"pw_incontent_2\" data-ad-size=\"300x250\" ><\/div>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/tags-cdn.deployads.com\/a\/pwtorch.com.js\" async ><\/script><br \/>\n<script>(deployads = window.deployads || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p>A: I\u2019m very grateful for the career I\u2019ve had, but I\u2019ve seen a lot of friends go and I had been passed over for opportunities. I don\u2019t want to blame anyone else for something that I didn\u2019t achieve because that\u2019s just not the way to go through life. But it did get frustrating not even being on the playing field, not being allowed to compete. So it was a combination of that and pro wrestling being as popular as it is now that I felt I could take advantage of ten years of TV exposure. I want to move forward and see where that takes me.\u00a0I don\u2019t regret it. I\u2019m very glad that I did it because I needed a change. I needed to find a way to push myself again. This is definitely doing it. Be careful what you ask for. (laughs) It\u2019s a lot less stressful, but at the same time, a lot more work. Now you\u2019re handling everything. We handled a bunch before, but now it seems like more. But it\u2019s been fun. I have 100 percent creative control over my character and merchandise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Are you considering joining Bellator?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: I\u2019m considering going into MMA. Like I said earlier, combat sports is at an all-time high in popularity. I\u2019m lucky that I still can go and have exposure outside of MMA. I\u2019ve been training. I\u2019m still trying to figure out the best route. I\u2019m 100 percent serious about it because the reward that could come from it would be astronomical. Plus, it\u2019s something I\u2019ve done all my life. Maybe not MMA-totally, but it\u2019s very similar to competing in wrestling, just with punches. It\u2019s kind of a natural transition for me. When you leave WWE, you need to find a way to use that exposure for whatever you want. This would be a great way &#8211; I just have to learn to bob and weave a little bit, and don\u2019t get tapped out. But I\u2019m very excited about it. The sky is the limit and my body has never felt better, which is surprising at 35 and after ten years of traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q: Were you surprised that CM Punk tried his hand at MMA?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A: A little bit, but at the same time, he made so much money from it that it\u2019s not surprising. If you knew you were going to get that type of money and you\u2019re that type of draw, hats off to you, my friend. I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to find many pro wrestlers who are mad at him for doing it.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT THIS RECENT ARTICLE:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/10\/30\/interview-highlights-steve-austin-talks-kurt-angles-return-changes-mindset-return-neville-heenan\/\">Interview Highlights: Steve Austin talks about Kurt Angle\u2019s return, if it changes his mindset about a return, Neville, Heenan, more<\/a><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-816754886\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-311323698\"><div id=\"pwtor-3654877484\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Jack Swagger was interviewed by The Wrestling Estate ahead of a charity indy event he&#8217;s headlining this weekend called WrestleJam16. Here are highlights supplied to PWTorch by John Corrigan&#8230; (FULL INTERVIEW LINK) Q: Was there <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/10\/31\/interview-highlights-jack-swagger-talks-departure-wwe-regrets-potential-mma-career-c-m-punk-ufc\/\" title=\"Interview Highlights: Jack Swagger talks about departure from WWE, any regrets, potential MMA career, C.M. Punk in UFC\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2,4247],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-prowrestlingnews","category-interview-highlights"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SwaggerJackWK1_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50230,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50229\/revisions\/50230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}