WWE is off to a good start making Jade Cargill into a big star

If you read, listen, discuss & debate pro wrestling online, you already know who Jade Cargill is. You’ve watched some or all of her 60 match undefeated streak on Dynamite & Rampage. You’ve also probably seen or been part of an argument about how green she is in the ring, whether she’s charismatic enough a presence to justify the push AEW gave her, and if WWE is the right place for her.

But if you’re someone who only watches WWE television, or are the elusive “casual” wrestling fan? There’s a decent chance the former TBS champion never crossed your radar.

For the past couple weeks, we’ve been hearing about the big plans WWE has for Cargill. Clearly, the company see’s a star in the 31 year old former fitness model — and believes they can help her become a bigger deal than even AEW’s partners at Warner Bros Discovery could.

While it’s only been a few hours since they announced Cargill’s signing, they’re off to a good start proving it.

Start with the announcement itself. For one thing, WWE doesn’t make a huge deal out of most signings. Making her arrival news at all differentiates Jade from most of their incoming talent. Giving ESPN that first puts her in a rare group with names like Cody Rhodes or Olympic gold medalists, and ensures word of her decision pops up in places a dirt sheet report never would.

Within the world of wrestling, WWE has their “Breaking News” banner out on their own website heralding Cargill putting pen to paper...

WWE.com

At the same time, numerous corporate partners & members of Team WWE have shared the news, spreading it further and rallying the faithful (some of whom a couple weeks ago probably held Jade up as an example of what they didn’t like about Tony Khan’s fed):

Their web teams are already building anticipation for some of those “high priority” plans we’ve been hearing WWE has for Jade...

... and hyping her arrival at their Orlando, Florida Performance Center in a way that also teases a debut that could happen as soon as tonight’s episode of NXT (my money’s on a video hyping her signing there and an appearance at No Mercy this Saturday, but we’ll see):

In addition to all this promotion benefitting Cargill and her new promotion, it also furthers an idea they started pushing when Rhodes returned to WWE: that AEW isn’t competition, it’s a stepping stone to the big time.

All of that is sound strategy. But it also depends on their turning Jade into the star she’s being presented as right now.

This presentation is a great first step. We’ll see how they do with the trickier remaining ones in the months to come.