Jack Swagger Reveals Pro-Donald Trump Pitch He Made To WWE, Confirms Phone Call From Trump
Towards the end of his WWE run, Jack Swagger took his All-American American gimmick to a new level. With manager Zeb Colter at his side, Swagger displayed many of the characteristics that President Donald Trump currently displays.
It turns out that there is not only a connection between Swagger and Trump, but a friendship as well. There were reports that Trump called Swagger before his last MMA fight to wish him luck and Swagger responded to that when he spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast.
"Yeah, he called me; it was great. Very honored and we talked briefly," said Swagger. "We had met before at a WWE event in Green Bay and he was at WrestleMania 29 where he sat by my wife in the front row. [Trump's] an old family friend and he was proud of the hard work he saw a real American doing."
When asked what specifically Trump told him, Swagger wouldn't reveal that information.
"Hey, that's my advantage that I take with me," replied Swagger. "When you get a call from the President, you can keep it for yourself."
Swagger's gimmick started right before Trump began his presidency campaign trail and he was asked if he thought it actually influenced Trump's campaign in some way.
"There's definitely some similarities in the rhetoric and terms. But I don't think we had anything to do with it," stated Swagger. "That was 2013 [at WrestleMania 29] and he definitely pulled Zeb aside and told him he liked it. I'm sure it was already brewing because you could see the problems in the country."
Swagger then revealed that he pitched an idea in the fall of 2015 where he wanted to come back with Zeb and mimic what Trump was saying and doing but that idea was shot down.
"[Vince McMahon] didn't want to do it. I was like, 'C'mon Vince, you could tell your friend that you put him in the White House!' But he didn't want to mess with our President, which I'm glad we didn't now. But it would have been an honor as we would have been his lackeys and agreed with everything he did," said Swagger.
Swagger has an upcoming wrestling match with Capitol Wrestling on a card that will also feature Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. He talked about how he became involved with Capitol.
"They reached out and it happened to work out that our schedules connected. They were very professional in how they approached me and it seemed like a great opportunity to be a part of this debut," said Swagger who will wrestle for a cause that raises money for those wrongfully imprisoned.
"Any wrongful conviction causes that we're raising money for are good ones. There's a lot of incarcerated people that are wrongly incarcerated. It's great to be a part of something like this and helping raise money," said Swagger.
Jack Swagger will be teaming with Darius Carter to take on Anthony Gangone and Paul Jordane when Capitol Wrestling makes it's Nashville debut on August 11th. Tickets for the event can be purchased here: https://bit.ly/2MDGclX. His full interview with Wrestling Inc aired as part of a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded audio player at the bottom of this post. In it, Swagger discusses working with Capitol Wrestling, teaming up with the Wrestling For Innocence project, his 2-0 Bellator record, what's next for him in Bellator, President Donald Trump's pre-Bellator fight call to him, his frustrations with WWE creative, R-Truth's 24/7 title runs and more.
You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.