Jade Cargill signed with the WWE in September 2023, although she didn’t make her debut for the company until the Royal Rumble in January of 2024. Before teaming up with the wrestling juggernaut, Cargill was the face of AEW’s women’s division. However, the opportunity to work for WWE and potentially become a household name proved to be too much of a draw.
“I want to create a legacy, I want to be in the Hall of Fame, I want to wrestle with the best women in the world. I mean, there’s no grander stage than this stage,” Cargill said during a Sept. 2023 appearance on The Ringer’s “The Masked Man Show.” “The opportunities are endless for this company. It’s a no-brainer. It was very welcoming. I didn’t have any second thoughts at all. It was just an easy choice. It wasn’t easy, but it was easy.”
However, moving between the two wrestling companies has come with some challenges. During her latest interview with “The Masked Man Show,” Cargill admitted that the travel associated with WWE’s schedule has been “brutal,” especially after her time at AEW, where wrestlers only work one or two days per week.
“The travel is brutal. It’s very, very brutal and the crazy thing about it is this, and I know B (Bianca Belair) talks about this all the time. This isn’t even half of what they used to do for travel. The fact that we travel internationally, and then we have to turn around, and people have to go to RAW and their clocks have to be on point to whatever time change they’re in right now, I think that’s crazy…I would say that the biggest challenge to this all is the travel. Yes, you take all the bumps. Yes, you go in the ring. Yes, all this stuff, but travel is the biggest part of it all.”
The WWE is an international powerhouse. There is usually a show on tour somewhere in the world, along with tapings of RAW and Smackdown. They also have a monthly Premium Live Event, and talent appear on their developmental NXT brand. As such, it’s perfectly logical that Cargill has had difficulty adjusting to the busier schedule.
Nevertheless, WWE has already positioned her to become a star. She’s a two-time Women’s Tag Team champion with Bianca Belair and will undoubtedly have a singles run at some point in the future. It’s also worth noting that TKO President Mark Shapiro is already looking at shaving around 50 live events off WWE’s calendar next year. His comments came during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Technology Conference, via fightful.com.
“We’re cutting events at WWE. We’re taking our low-margin, marginally profitable events, untelevised events that Vince put in place to grow the brand, right? You’re taking the show on the road, we’ve gotta go to every city we can get to grow the WWE brand,” Shapiro said. “…Andrew Schleimer, our CFO and Nick Khan at WWE have been hands on involved with cutting back those events, trimming those events. What was 300 [events] last year will be roughly 250 this year. And next year, we’ll be close to 200.”
Cargill made the jump to WWE to take advantages of the opportunities that come with working for the company. Right now, she’s adjusting to life as a WWE superstar. Still, she is already building a name for herself and, sooner or later, will have the chance to emerge as the head of the women’s division. If she can take advantage of those opportunities, her decision to join the company will undoubtedly prove to be the right one.