Jade Cargill Says She Would Have Preferred Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania Over Rhea Ripley

Jade Cargill has made a candid admission about her WrestleMania 42 opponent — Rhea Ripley was not her first choice. Speaking on The Joe Budden Podcast, the WWE Women’s Champion explained that her ongoing chemistry with Charlotte Flair generated bigger reactions than anything she has built with Ripley, making Flair feel like the more natural WrestleMania opponent from her perspective.

“Every time I had a face-to-face with Charlotte, we got a huge reaction. I’ve had maybe two face-offs with Rhea. The reaction — it was a total difference. There’s been more of a reaction with Charlotte and I having attitude and yelling at each other,” Cargill said. She acknowledged the business reasoning behind the current direction. “I believe the reason why we went this route is because it’s more money that’s going to be made going against Rhea.”

Jade Cargill Says Rhea Ripley Was “Built by WWE” While She Is “Raw” Without That Machine Behind Her

Cargill also drew a sharp distinction between her own path to the top of WWE and Ripley’s. “She’s great. But she also is backed and always has been built by WWE. She came from the indies, went to NXT, her character developed along the way — the machine does that for you. It pushes you. It helps you try different things.” By contrast, Cargill positioned herself as someone who had none of that infrastructure. “I’m raw. My first match ever was on TV. I didn’t go through the indies. I didn’t do all that training. My NXT was AEW.” Her first match was a mixed tag on AEW Dynamite in March 2021 alongside Shaquille O’Neal against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet — making her WrestleMania 42 title defense against Ripley just four years into her professional wrestling career.