{"id":50945,"date":"2017-11-14T14:07:49","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=50945"},"modified":"2017-11-14T14:07:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T20:07:49","slug":"jack-swagger-signs-bellator-fighting-begin-mma-career-brings-american-college-wrestling-skillset-new-sport-wkellers-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/11\/14\/jack-swagger-signs-bellator-fighting-begin-mma-career-brings-american-college-wrestling-skillset-new-sport-wkellers-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Swagger signs with Bellator Fighting to begin his MMA career, brings All-American college wrestling skillset to his new sport (w\/Keller&#8217;s Analysis)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3178726743\" 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><div dir=\"auto\">Former WWE Champion Jack Swagger, real name Jake Hager, has signed with Bellator, a major MMA organization that airs its events on Spike TV.\u201cThis is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a long time,&#8221; he said in a press release sent to PWTorch.com and MMATorch.com. &#8220;It\u2019s something that\u2019s a prat of me so it makes sense. I\u2019m very happy with the deal. I\u2019ve felt a lot of love from Bellator. I think there are certain types of guys who need to be punched in the face and taste blood. \u00a0I\u2019ve always been a fan of MMA, I\u2019ve been wrestling since I was five years old. It\u2019s awesome to be with Bellator. They\u2019re really going to put 100 percent towards it!\u201d<\/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>Hager wrestled at the University of Oklahoma, where he was an All-American and set the school record for most pins at the 285-pound weight class in a single season with 30. He went on to WWE<\/p>\n<p><em>Keller&#8217;s Analysis: I&#8217;m really looking forward to seeing how Swagger does in Bellator. I suspect he will be seen as someone with a chance to land in the Bobby Lashley realm of success because of his amateur wrestling base, rather than C.M. Punk, who had no lifelong base fighting style he had been practicing before his WWE career. MMA seems like something he&#8217;s interested in testing himself in at this stage of his life. At 35 years old, and with his wrestling base, he should have a chance to catch up on the overall skill set enough to seem like a credible opponent, but the real work begins now.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> VIP members can listen to my interview with Jack Swagger this past summer discussing his WWE career and, in particular, the dynamic of a wrestler and a creative team member behind the scenes&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vip.pwtorch.com\/2017\/07\/21\/vip-audio-721-wade-keller-pro-wrestling-podcast-interview-with-jack-swagger-and-john-piermarini-on-the-dynamic-between-writer-and-wrestler-in-wwe-plus-battleground-preview-with-mitchell\/\">VIP AUDIO 7\/21 \u2013 Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast \u2013 Interview with Jack Swagger and John Piermarini on the dynamic between writer and wrestler in WWE, plus Battleground Preview with Mitchell, more Mailbag (78 min)<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-705331121\"><div id=\"pwtor-1634812063\"><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>Former WWE Champion Jack Swagger, real name Jake Hager, has signed with Bellator, a major MMA organization that airs its events on Spike TV.\u201cThis is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a long time,&#8221; he <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/11\/14\/jack-swagger-signs-bellator-fighting-begin-mma-career-brings-american-college-wrestling-skillset-new-sport-wkellers-analysis\/\" title=\"Jack Swagger signs with Bellator Fighting to begin his MMA career, brings All-American college wrestling skillset to his new sport (w\/Keller&#8217;s Analysis)\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5661,"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":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SwaggerJackWK2_3x2_600.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50945","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=50945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50948,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50945\/revisions\/50948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}