Jade Cargill Says AEW Was Her ‘NXT’ While Explaining Her Unusual Path To WWE

Jade Cargill made it clear that her wrestling journey didn’t follow the same path as most WWE stars, and she summed it up with one line that is getting attention ahead of WrestleMania 42.

While speaking on the Joe Budden Podcast, Cargill compared her early days in AEW to what many WWE talents experience in NXT, pointing out that she skipped the traditional developmental route entirely.

During the conversation, she explained how Rhea Ripley benefited from WWE’s long-term system, while her own development happened in front of a national audience instead of behind the scenes.

“I want to say this .. I want to say this: Yeah, she’s great. She’s great. But, however, she also is backed and always has been built by WWE. She came from the indies. Yes, she went to NXT. Her character has developed along the way. If you see how she looked when she first got into wrestling to now, it’s a huge transformation. But also the machine does that for you. It pushes you. It helps you try different things, you know, and she goes out there and she delivers every single time. So, you’re going to do nothing but invest more and more and more. I’m raw. My first match ever was on TV. Like I just said, I didn’t go through the indies. I didn’t go through all the training. I didn’t do all that. My NXT was AEW.”

That line stands out because it directly frames AEW as the place where she learned the business in real time, rather than developing through WWE’s NXT system like many of her peers.