When a pro athlete gives you advice when you’re just starting out, perhaps the best course of action is to heed that advice of the respected sage. Thus was the case for Jade Cargill, who hasn’t been in the business that long but yet has accomplished so much already. We’ll of course get to that in just a little bit.
As it would turn out, the former basketball player had a lot of advice her first few years in the business…and from many sources. After having a WWE try-out, she met Mark Henry, who served as her mentor and she subsequently started training at The Nightmare Factory under QT Marshall and of course Cody Rhodes…. The rest, as they say, is history, said advice obviously paying off in a big way.
It was during her debut that she got to work with NBA legend, Shaq. As it turned out, he also had some very good advice for the rising star, as she told The Zaslow Show recently. Here’s some of what she had to say:
“It was a dream come true…This is a man that everybody watched growing up. I think every commercial break; you see an advertisement for this man. For me to even be in the same room and share conversation, share a ring with this man, was a blessing in disguise. Who gets a debut match with Shaquille O’Neal on prime-time TV? …
I remember before going out, I said ‘you ready?’ He looked at me and said ‘no. Are you ready? This is my world. I work in entertainment. Are you ready? Don’t embarrass me.’ That lit a fire under my ass. It was a surreal moment. This is a moment when people can see me. This is the time for me to make my mark.”
She also went into the impact her family had on her when she was entering the business of professional wrestling…an interesting time to say the least.
“My mom said no…She said ‘you’re going to get hurt.’ When somebody thinks of wrestling, the first thing they think of is getting body slammed and getting hurt. My mom is still not a fan of me wrestling at all. My daughter is one of my biggest fans. She’s my wrestling partner. She loved it, we put her in tennis, soccer, golf, and right now, wrestling is her thing. I understand my mom because I’m like ‘no.’…
My brother is another big fan of mine. My family, they’ll go with whatever I go with. My mom, however, is not a fan. My daughter was there the first day I stepped foot in the ring. My daughter has always been there. I would get tossed and every single second I got hit, my daughter would start crying. I would have to get out the ring and talk to her and get her to understand…
Eventually, I was like ‘when I’m winning, and beating him up, I need you to cheer for me.’ She has been in this since she was two, watching me get beat up by these gigantic men since she was two. When people are booing me, she’ll look at them with this stern face. She’ll turn around and clap and cheer for me. I tell her that I’m a superhero, and mommy has to go and fight crime right now. We’re learning together. She’s gotten in trouble in school for using wrestling moves.”
via Jade Cargill /Wrestling Inc. (Transcription) – link above
It seems like just yesterday, really, but her debut for AEW came in March of 2021 and just look how far she’s come so far. Her undefeated streak alone is garnering her quite a wee bit of attention and her TBS Championship win and consequent reign has been nothing short of astounding.
Eventually she’s going to have to lose the title, but finding appropriate opponents for her has been interesting to behold, both as a fan and as a pro wrestling journalist.
