Josh Woods Helped Train Jake Hager For MMA Fight, Wants Him In Varsity Athletes

Josh Woods talks about his relationship with Jake Hager and wanting to team with him as part of The Varsity Athletes in AEW.

Currently, Josh Woods and Tony Nese are known as The Varsity Athletes in All Elite Wrestling. Managed by “Smart” Mark Sterling, the team actually took the name Varsity from Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison thanks to some legal maneuvering by Sterling.

Now, on the latest episode of AEW Unrestricted, Josh Woods explains that he would like to see Jake Hager join him in The Varsity Athletes or he wants to at least be given the opportunity to stand across the ring from Jake in a series of matches. Woods reveals that he became close with the Jericho Appreciation Society member when Hager was training for an MMA fight that never came to fruition.

“Jake is an incredible athlete and we were training for a couple of months leading up to a fight he was going to have and that got changed and moved around and stuff. So I got to get close with Jake just doing grappling and working on wrestling and stuff in preparation for that fight. So yeah, that would be awesome to have him with us or us with him or however that would be or not at all, or just a one-time thing. But yeah, I think Jake’s incredible. So any sort of combo of that would be really cool,” said Josh.

Asked about the potential of wrestling Jake, he says he would like to have it be in a series of matches with one of the matches including ROH Pure Rules.

“Dibs,” Josh exclaimed in excitement at the idea of wrestling Hager. “I’m thinking like a series. First, amateur [rules], which people may hate but I don’t care, then normal, then Pure.”

Finally, Woods was asked about chess boxing and if he has any proficiency in the medium. Woods Kept his answer very simple because he is good at boxing and sucks at chess.

“I’m really good at boxing, I suck at chess. So I’m not going to move the whole time and go, ‘We’re waiting.'”

Recently, AEW filed the trademark on the term Varsity Club but there have been no hints on television as to how the trademark will be used.