Jade Cargill is absolutely stoked about her new manager in All Elite Wrestling.
After successfully defeating Anna Jay at Double Or Nothing, Cargill was met by her new manager: Stokely Hathaway. Hathaway, formerly known as Malcolm Bivens in NXT, officially made his AEW debut in aligning himself with Cargill. In a post-show media scrum, Jade Cargill applauded the acquisition of Hathaway:
“He’s the best talker in the game. Who wouldn’t want anything less than that, somebody to represent a superstar that is about to just come forth in front of all your eyes. Tony Khan made the best decision he could ever make in this situation.”
AEW President Tony Khan chimed in to further explain Stokely’s arrival to the company. “I was in a very unique position, Champ. So, it was pretty unusual. Stokely’s [non-compete with WWE] expired yesterday. I had never met him or spoke to him until today, because I do things the right way, with honor. It just so happened that his [non-compete] expired and I had this idea, we were lucky. There is a lot of independent wrestling and stuff going on, I guess he’s been around Vegas. I had never met him until day, I swear on my life, and I never had a conversation with him. I’ve had him in mind since 2018, actually. I remember, being way back in the day, actually with Cody (Rhodes). I was saying, ‘I really like Stokely Hathaway.’ I’m a big fan of him,” Khan revealed.
“It’s funny, he came in today as Stokely Hathaway and having had another name, recently, with another promotion, I never had this conversation with him,” he continued. “Today, I told him, ‘I want you to be Stokely Hathaway. I’m the owner of Ring of Honor. You have a great history with Ring of Honor.’ Not only did I explain that I want to pair him with the world’s greatest network champion, the world’s top undefeated pro wrestler, two years in, with a sparkling record and add to the presentation that has already come so far and so fast. Like Jade said, he’s a great talker, and I literally never met him or spoken to him. We’d never talked or spoken until today, which is pretty cool that it worked out. It was great timing.”
Jade Cargill noted that she was truly surprised at the arrival as well: “Seriously guys, I didn’t know anything until–I didn’t know anything. This was a surprise to me just as much as it was to everybody else in this room. Trust me, I was excited just as much as you are.”
Tony Khan further commented on the pairing of Cargill and Hathaway: “It made for a great moment. I think it was a great surprise for the fans. The timing, we were fortunate sometimes, it was great timing that he expired yesterday. I think it’s an obvious solution, right? Putting one of the great champions in wrestling, with one who already has so much charisma, with a great talker and they can be like [Nick] Bockwinkel and [Bobby] Heenan. A great talker with another great talker and a great mind. I think they could be the new Bockwinkel and Heenan.”
RELATED: Stokely Hathaway And Athena Sign With All Elite Wrestling, Appear At AEW Double Or Nothing
*Note: Hathaway was released by WWE on April 29, indicating he would have had a 30-day non-compete with the company since he was a NXT talent.
