Months after signing with WWE following her AEW departure, Jade Cargill finally made her in-ring debut for the promotion in the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble match last month. Cargill had an impressive showing, eliminating the likes of Naomi, Nia Jax, and Becky Lynch and even lasting until the final three before being eliminated by Liv Morgan. Since then, however, Cargill has only made sporadic appearances on WWE programming and now, a new report has seemingly provided insight as to why.
Dave Meltzer reports in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE originally planned to have Jade Cargill compete in the Women’s Elimination Chamber match in Perth, Australia this weekend. Meltzer noted that at one point, the plan was for Cargill to win the Last Chance Battle Royal on Raw this past Monday to qualify for the match. However, that match was instead won by the returning Raquel Rodriguez who is set to compete against Morgan, Lynch, Naomi, Tiffany Stratton, and Bianca Belair at the Premium Live Event tomorrow night.
While the reason why plans changed is unclear, Meltzer speculated the change was made as it would not make creative sense to have Cargill make her proper debut and lose, given that all signs point to Becky Lynch winning the match and going on to challenge Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley at WWE WrestleMania XL as previously teased. Where this leaves Cargill’s creative plans going forward is currently unknown.
Since signing with WWE last September, Cargill has been training extensively both in the WWE Performance Center and externally. In November, it was reported that she was training directly with former NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez due to Perez’s solid fundamentals and experience well beyond her years. Additionally, Cargill was spotted training with Natalya last month, which Haus of Wrestling’s own Nick Hausman queried Natalya about at the Royal Rumble media junket a few weeks ago.