Jade Cargill feels at home in All Elite Wrestling.
The inaugural AEW TBS Women’s Champion has quickly become one of the promotion’s breakout stars; she is undefeated in singles competition, and she recently main-evented AEW Rampage. AEW President Tony Khan previously shared his belief that Cargill was the 2021 Rookie of the Year, and she’s already follow up her impressive first year with a remarkable 2022.
Given Cargill’s unmatched nature as a physical powerhouse, it’s fair to assume that she was on WWE‘s radar, and the champion recently described why she opted to sign with AEW instead of Vince McMahon’s promotion.
During an appearance on Talk Is Jericho, Cargill named the job security in AEW as one of the biggest factors in her choice. She referenced the multiple rounds of releases WWE made last year and recalled how one of her friends lost his job during the wave of cuts.
“There’s more security, there’s a safety net here,” said Cargill. “One of my friends gave up everything he had and he had a newborn baby and he got cut with no warning and he gave everything…everything! I remember when I told him that I was thinking about coming here and he couldn’t believe it, he asked why would I ever choose this over that and I told him ‘you don’t understand, like…I feel good here, I don’t wanna be cut, I don’t wanna have to worry.’
“Like, I don’t wanna just be a number and he was so for this company and look at him and that sucks, like he was all about this company and he tried to convince me to come over and his wife just had a baby and he moved to Florida just for his career and that sucks…I know I made the best decision.”
Earlier in the conversation, Cargill also cited the feeling that she could stand out, rather than being “just a number,” as another motivator. She then spoke highly of welcoming AEW’s locker room.
“…I didn’t want to just be a number,” said Cargill. “But what really stood out to me was that I could call TK [Tony Khan], I could text TK and he knows exactly who I am and that mattered to me. I’ve always been a believer and I’ve always been an underdog and being an underdog, I’m hungry and I wanted to be a part of something that was hungry and could change things. So, that’s why I came here and in the locker room, I felt at ease, I didn’t feel like it was a bullying system or like an athlete versus wrestler type of system, it felt natural, I felt at ease.”
Cargill took part in a tryout at the WWE Performance Center in 2019 before signing with AEW in November 2020.
Related: Jade Cargill On Comparisons To Goldberg: ‘It’s Breathtaking, It’s Amazing’
