Wrestling market leader WWE snaps up a rising star from rival AEW: Jade Cargill signs a multi-year contract.
One week before WWE’s annual highlight WrestleMania 40, a highly-touted newcomer has put a big exclamation point on his name – and is about to make a big debut on wrestling’s most important stage.
On the latest edition of the TV show Friday Night SmackDown, Jade Cargill, who switched from competitor AEW to WWE, celebrated her debut as a permanent squad member and immediately made a big impact: she came to the aid of former women’s champions Bianca Belair and Naomi in their feud against the Damage CTRL group and took them by surprise with spectacular power moves.
After the show, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis then made Cargill’s WrestleMania debut official: she teams with Belair and Naomi against Damage CTRL representatives Asuka, Kairi Sane and Dakota Kai next weekend at Philadelphia’s Super Bowl Stadium. Meanwhile, Iyo Sky, the leader of Damage CTRL, puts her WWE Women’s Title on the line against former leader Bayley, now a foe of hers.
Jade Cargill moved from AEW to WWE
WWE announced Cargill’s signing last fall, and she made her in-ring debut at the Royal Rumble in January. Cargill was immediately introduced as a force to be reckoned with and only narrowly failed to win the traditional event. After that, Cargill went quiet for a while, WWE obviously waited for a strategically favorable time to introduce her as a permanent member of the SmackDown roster – her contract signing was staged at the beginning of the show.
Former college basketball player Cargill was introduced in a big way at AEW in 2020 in a highly publicized match with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal against Cody Rhodes and his wife Brandi, who has since moved to WWE himself. Between January 2022 and May 2023, she held the newly introduced TBS title and was undefeated until the unheralded Kris Statlander, returning from injury, defeated her.
A rematch against Statlander was then Cargill’s farewell performance for Tony Khan’s league, who in turn has just scored a major coup by signing Mercedes Moné, the former Sasha Banks.
The athletic and charismatic Cargill – wife of former MLB player Brandon Philips, with whom she has a daughter – says she is inspired by the comic book character Storm (X-Men) and the late WWE legend Chyna. Now she wants to follow in the footsteps of her idol with her former employer
