Spotlight on Jade Cargill
What a career Jade Cargill has had. Professional wrestling wasn’t originally on her cards, originally playing basketball at Jacksonville University while studying Social Science. During this time, Jade also obtained a certified Masters in Child Psychology and used that to help children in foster care. Deeming that mentally fatiguing and wanting a change, Jade had a try out with WWE in April, 2019.
Following this, she went to AR Fox’s WWA4 Academy for further training Jade was introduced to Mark Henry through a mutual friend, who she noted considers her mentor, and during an interview with the Breakfast Club with Charlemagne tha God and Angela Yee on Power FM, her “wrestling dad”, who suggested she go to Face 2 Face Wrestling School. Jade did some further training at the Nightmare Factory, under QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes.
After signing with AEW, Tony Khan asked Sonjay Dutt and Bryan Danielson to coach Jade. Jade would make her AEW debut on November 11th, 2020, interrupting Cody Rhodes and teasing an appearance by Shaquille O’Neal. This would be her first rivalry in AEW and would lead to a match on March 3rd, 2021 pitting herself and Shaq against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.
This would be the first match in a 60 match winning streak for the rookie. Matt Hardy and Mark Sterling would offer their managerial services to Jade, with the latter being picked. In October 2021, AEW announced a mid card championship for the women’s division called the TBS Championship, named after the channel that airs AEW Dynamite.
Jade was one of 12 women taking part in the tournament to crown the first champion. Jade was one of 4 stars to receive a bye in the first round, along with Thunder Rosa, Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander. Jade would go on to defeat Red Velvet, Thunder Rosa and Ruby Soho to become the first ever AEW TBS Championship, a championship she would go on to hold for 508 days.
Throughout this run, Jade would go on to defend her championship against all challengers, from Anna Jay and Julia Hart to Tay Conti and Willow Nightingale and everyone in between, continuing her impressive winning streak. It was during this time that Jade would start The Baddies, consisting of herself, Red Velvet and Kiera Hogan.
At Double or Nothing 2022, Jade would replace Mark Sterling with Stokley Hathaway, who would try to recruit as many people as he could to be his clients. Leila Grey would be the next person to join the stable, replacing Red Velvet who was injured. This also coincided with the debut of Athena, who would start a rivalry with Jade, leading to a match at All Out, which Jade made short work of.
Jade would face a number of other contenders, such as Madison Rayne and Diamante, before Nyla Rose would steal the physical TBS Championship shortly after this, closing to be the real TBS Champion, starting a rivalry between herself and Jade Cargill that would last two months. The eventual match up would take place at Full Gear 2022, which Jade would win, retaining the championship and regaining the belt.
Jade would celebrate a year as TBS Champion on January 5th, and the following week, would become the longest reigning champion, beating the record held by Hikaru Shida, who held the AEW Women’s World Championship at 372 days. At Double or Nothing 2023, Jade would face Taya Valkyrie in match number 60 for the TBS Championship, in which she would retain. After the match, Jade would issue an open challenge, which was accepted by Kris Statlander.
Statlander would go on to win the match in 50 seconds, ending Jade’s 508 day reign as champion and 60 match winning streak. Jade would take an extended time off before returning on the September 9th edition of Collision, attacking Kris Statlander, leading to a rematch for the TBS Championship a week later on Rampage, with Statlander retaining. This would be Jade’s last match in AEW, as her contract would expire the same day.
Later in September, Jade would go to the WWE Performance Centre, with reports claiming she signed with the promotion. These reports would be confirmed by WWE, stating that a multi year contract was signed, and training commencing. Jade would be the first signing under TKO Group Holdings. Jade would make several appearances on TV and PLE, leaving speculation to which show she would sign to.
At the Royal Rumble PLE in 2024, Jade made her in ring debut during the Women’s Royal Rumble match as the 28th entrant. She went on to eliminate Nia Jax and Naomi before being eliminated by Liv Morgan
PPV + PLE Content. Northern Adelaide suburbs resident with a lifelong passion for professional wrestling since the age of 14. What drew Rhys to wrestling was the antics of Eddie Guerrero and the freestyles of John Cena, and has been hooked ever since. Currently, Rhys watches WWE and AEW programing. This passion for wrestling has led to Rhys writing for PW Down Under, where he has become the resident PPV guy.
