Jade Cargill has had a rough 2026 on paper. The way WWE has booked her tells a different story than the results do.
Cargill opened the year as WWE Women’s Champion, having taken the title from Tiffany Stratton at Saturday Night’s Main Event in November 2025. Rhea Ripley ended that reign at WrestleMania 42 on April 19 in Las Vegas, in the co-main event of Night 2.
B-Fab and Michin interfered on Cargill’s behalf, but Iyo Sky evened the odds with a springboard moonsault to the floor. Ripley hit the Riptide for the win, ending a 169-day reign.
A rematch followed at Clash in Italy on May 31. Charlotte Flair got involved in Ripley’s favor, and the champion retained.
WrestleVotes on Fightful Select reported in June that a Cargill and Flair singles match had been pitched internally for SummerSlam. The bout was said to be penciled in for the two-night card in Minneapolis at one point.
Ripley’s injury changed the plan. WWE created an interim WWE Women’s Championship and booked a five-woman ladder match for Night 2 on August 2. Cargill and Flair landed in the same bout, alongside Chelsea Green, Stratton, and Lash Legend.
The Storm addressed the switch on Busted Open Radio at Fanatics Fest. Cargill said she expected a one-on-one with Flair and was unhappy that The Queen had cost her big matches.
“I have a clear path to taking back a title that I never truly lost,” Cargill said.
Green won the ladder match. WWE later recognised her as lineal champion, retroactively ending Ripley’s reign.
Cargill picked up a notable victory at Sunday Night’s Main Event on September 6th at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Teaming with B-Fab and Michin, she pinned Flair after a miscue involving Tatum Paxley, who partnered Flair and Alexa Bliss.
The event sat in the former champion’s home region, and she revived the Baddie Section from her AEW days for the occasion. Recruiting female fans for ringside seats through social media, Cargill framed the return as a choice she owned outright.
The night was not spotless. A clip of her slow return to the apron during the match circulated widely online. Separate social media comments about male fans on September 1 also drew pushback, and she stood by them.
WWE has not given up on Cargill, and the booking says so plainly. Companies that have lost faith in a performer do not put her in the co-main event of WrestleMania. The same companies do not hand her an immediate rematch, then pencil her in for a SummerSlam singles match with Flair.
Losing the title at WrestleMania was not a demotion. The Eradicator was the most logical woman on the roster to hand The Storm her first major setback. The match was built around Cargill as a dominant champion, one who needed Sky’s help to stop. Stars who get buried do not lose that way.
The Atlanta result matters more than it looks. Pinning Flair on a television special, in front of a home crowd, with the Baddie Section back at ringside, is WWE putting its resources behind a character. B-Fab and Michin exist in that role to make Cargill look like a boss, and they are not attached to someone the company plans to phase out.
The concerns are real. The in-ring polish still draws fair criticism, the win column has been thin since April, and picking fights with the audience on social media does her no favours. None of that amounts to abandonment. A performer WWE had written off would be missing from television, not pinning a 14-time women’s world champion in Atlanta.
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