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With the confirmation that Jade Cargill was signing with WWE after three years at AEW, we officially had a new front in the online* “war” between diehard AEW and WWE fans.
It’s not new territory for Cargill, but some of the Twitter/X accounts & website commenters who used to defend her now call her overrated (or worse) and vice versa.
That’s not happening among Jade’s former colleagues, with people from AEW like Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Starks, and Will Washington wishing her well on social media after the news broke yesterday (Sept. 26). And though he doesn’t mention Jade by name, it’s pretty clear what prompted one of their co-workers to pick today to share this message with fans who can’t seem to join them....
This may be news to a lot of fans out there,but when one wrestler goes from one company to another, we tend to always wish them the best and cheer for them while they embark on their new journey.Genuinely.
— Kenny Omega (@KennyOmegamanX) September 27, 2023
It’s embarrassing and shameful that some fans aren’t capable of the same.
Kenny Omega’s take may be a bit harsh, but he’s certainly not wrong. At least on relatively trivial issues like which wrestling company’s product** we prefer, it would be nice if more people just celebrated what they like without feeling the need to tell the world everything they think is wrong with the alternative.
One thing that makes it difficult for fans to just cheer someone like Cargill on in their journey is the way talent and promotions use moves like hers to make statements about the benefits of one company and take shots or make jokes about others. Most wrestlers seem to understand that’s all in the game; some fans who’ve invested a lot in being Team AEW or Team WWE take those direct or veiled jabs a lot more personally.
But we should try to remember that it’s great AEW and WWE are both providing paychecks to folks who bust their asses to entertain us, and providing different kinds of opportunities for them at different stages in their careers.
So let’s wish Jade well. More for the “making the world less toxic” reason than because we don’t want to embarrass Mr. Omega. But whatever gets the job done.
* It may pop up elsewhere on occasion, but these kinds of conflicts mostly happen on the web because most people wouldn’t say the things that keep them going without the distance and anonymity the internet provides.
** Or gaming platform, comic book publisher, pop singer, movie genre, sports team, etc, etc.
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