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Bringing the SWAGGER
By John Benson
WWE Superstar Jack Swagger can’t wait to return to Northeast Ohio.
Aside from the fact Youngstown is the hometown of his former college coach Bob Stoops — that’s right, before there was Jack Swagger there was Jacob Hager, Oklahoma Sooners football player — the professional wrestler said there’s something special about playing intimate arenas.
That’ll be the case when WWE Live takes place Saturday at Covelli Centre in Youngstown.
“I always feel like the smaller markets are more intense of a crowd, which makes it a lot more fun show for us,” Swagger said in a recent phone call. “We like to spin our entire show around the audience, almost let them dictate the show, what they want to see and where it’s going to go. For me, the smaller markets always seem louder.”
Loud audiences have been following Swagger since the 6-foot-7, 260-pound Oklahoma native joined the WWE, eventually becoming a world heavyweight champion.
However, as Swagger tells it, he’s evolved over the years with the WWE. Early on, the admitted showboat would arrive in the arena sporting an annoying grin while doing pushups and running laps around the ring.
He said it was a few years later that he realized, as a personality, he had to grow and evolve.
“Now I’m more focused. I’m definitely stronger and bigger, and not so much showboating,” Swagger said. “I feel like with what I’m doing, with the weight of the nation on my back, that it’s very serious to Jack Swagger, and I’m going to do everything I can to win it for America.
“For the majority of my career — I’ve been on TV for six years — I played the villain. But until recently — three months ago — I had a change of heart, and I now believe in the same things but I have a different mentality. I’m a hero.”
Making difficult decisions and changing positions is nothing new to Swagger. Actually, it was during his senior year in college that the defensive tackle decided to give up football and concentrate on wrestling for the school.
Swagger said he still remembers walking into Stoops’ office to break the news.
“He was so supportive of me,” Swagger said. “He knew of my wrestling background. We talked about it when he was recruiting me. A couple of years later, after I graduated, I was wrestling with the WWE and I ran into him at a wedding. He told me he’d be more than happy to come down the aisle with a chair if I needed it.”
Considering Stoops knows his WWE, what kind of wrestler does Swagger think his former coach would be in the ring?
“Oh, man, of course he’d have to have that visor on, but he’d be like very intense,” Swagger said. “I see him almost like a bull dog, just being all over you.”