Backstage News On Jade Cargill's AEW Signing, Which WWE HOFer Vouched For Her
On a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Teddy Long and Face2Face Wrestling Academy's Richard Borger sat down with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman where they discussed AEW's Jade Cargill. Cargill began her training at Face2Face Wrestling Academy working with current Impact star Heath Miller and Long, and Borger praised Cargill on the podcast.
"Jade came through. She started with us, despite what some people like to say on the internet right now, but she started with us," Borger noted. "We started training her with the assumption she was going to go to WWE, and AEW jumped in. The rest is history, but Jade's an amazing person. When you guys get a chance to sit down with her, highly intelligent, very calculated. You're going to love it. She's just an amazing person, and her story, when it all comes through, is going to be one that I think a lot of people are going to be interested to hear."
It has been reported that WWE passed on signing Cargill, and Borger recalled getting a call from Cargill after WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry recommended that she train at his school. He again praised Cargill for her physical talent as well as her personality as well.
"Funny thing, she calls us and says, 'Hey, Mark Henry from WWE told me that to contact you guys about coming to train, and I said, 'Oh, this is BS.' Teddy's sitting right next to me," Borger recalled. "I said, 'Teddy, call Mark. Let's see,' because we get people that name drop all the time, usually trying to train for free. And so he calls Mark, and Mark tells him, 'No, it's legit. She's awesome.' She was a D1 athlete before that. So then she comes in and starts training with us, and oh man, she's just a beast, solid 8-pack, just a genetic beast. And like I said, great personality, has her degree in child psychology. I mean, just one of the nicest people you could ever meet."
Long pointed out that if AEW didn't think she was ready, then she would not have been given the spotlight she has now. He expressed his belief that Cargill will find success in AEW.
"Well, the way professional wrestling works, she has to be ready or not," Long noted. "They ain't got time. They're not going to wait on you, but if they didn't see good potential in her, and they didn't see whether she was ready, I don't think they would ever put her in that spot. So congratulations to her, and I'm telling you man, like Rick said, she's a beast in the ring. She looks great, and she's gonna do real good for AEW. I guarantee you that."
The AEW women's division has received criticism over the lack of a clear direction from many of it's talent. Borger discussed his hope that things change for the division praising the talent that he hopes gets more time on TV.
"I don't want to get started on the AEW women's division, but they need help," Borger expressed. "Hopefully, some changes are made and creative gets on board with really pushing the women. They've got some talented women up there. They really do. I just think that it's being booked wrong, and I really hope that they don't put people into a corner.
"I think that Brandi being pregnant and getting a chance to step back with whatever her role is going to be, I'm not sure yet, but I think that that's going to give the other women a chance to shine a little bit more because I think Brandi's been a lot of the spotlight for the women and has taken up a little bit of air time this year. Didn't necessarily need that, could have been fed to some other people. So I'm hoping that with that, some of these other women get some TV time and really get to show what they can do because they've got some amazing women on that roster, and they just need the time."
You can find out more about Borger's Face 2 Face Wrestling Academy at Face2FaceWrestling.com.