Jade Cargill wanted to wrestle more during WWE Women’s title reign
Jade Cargill reflected on her WWE WrestleMania 42 showdown with Rhea Ripley, addressing shortcomings in her title reign and outlining ambitions for the future.
In an exclusive with The Takedown on SI, Cargill acknowledged the experience Ripley had with seasoned opponents like Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair at earlier WrestleMania events. She emphasized the importance of confidence heading into WrestleMania 42 catapulted her ability to deliver in the bout.
“She can’t go out there and have that stellar match if I don’t put on [a show] as well. Rhea has always had amazing dance partners. She’s worked with Charlotte, she’s worked with Becky… It takes two to tango. I wasn’t nervous last year. I had a match with the great Naomi. I thought we had a superb match in itself. It wasn’t a title match, so obviously it’s not gonna have as much buzz around it, but I don’t think that this was any different. I just had a title. And a title doesn’t make me, I make the title.”
Cargill added that while being the WWE Women’s Champion felt great it did lack in terms of what she had hoped for and wishes she had wrestled more. She identified it as a practice run for her next reign.
“I wanted to wrestle more. I wanted more competitive matches. I wanted more grit. I really wanted to sink my teeth into whatever was being thrown at me. That’s all I wanted with my reign, but we didn’t get that as much as I wanted, and that’s fine. But now that I had a practice run, I’m gonna call it a practice run, I’m gonna say next time is gonna be totally different.”
Cargill described that she has often been surrounded by superstars and revisited her AEW debut match where she teamed up with Shaquille O’Neal against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.
“I’ve been around superstars my entire life. That first match [in AEW], I was working with Cody Rhodes, and I was working with Shaquille O’Neal. Something that always sticks with me is that I asked [Shaq] if he was nervous. He was like, ‘Nervous? I can go out there, I could trip, fall, whatever. I’m still gonna be me. I’m still a star.'”
Cargill won the WWE Women’s Championship at SNME in November 2025 from Tiffany Stratton. Reports indicated that the title change was influenced by Stratton’s knee injury that required her to take some time off. Her first title defense took place on the February 13 edition of SmackDown.
Ripley set her sights on the championship after Elimination Chamber victory. This sparked a social media exchange that escalated into their rivalry for WrestleMania 42 where Ripley ended Cargill’s nearly 170 day title reign.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.