I almost hate that a women’s match main evented Collision on Saturday, because to me it stands for the reason I think Jade Cargill quit. Wait. Hold on. That doesn’t mean what it sounds like. Let me explain.
First, let me go out of my way to say that, no, I didn’t really hate the Saturday, September 16th episode of Collision. AEW gave TBS Champion Kris Statlander and the hometown-hot challenger Britt Baker, 15 minutes to tear the house down, and tear it down, they did. The crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center in (*checks notes* are we sure this is correct?) State College, PA threw everything they had that night behind the challenger. They popped for every hope spot, bit on every near-fall, and in the end felt gutted alongside the Pittsburgh native in defeat. In theory, AEW couldn’t book a more perfect moment in time for its first women’s main event on Collision.
A surprise roll-up from Statlander brought the match to a sudden and intriguing end. The defeated Britt Baker’s posture all but signaled the next big feud for Kris Statlander, whose victory marked yet another big win of her run with the belt. Statlander entered the match banged up after a decisive, statement win over former champion Jade Cargill just 24 hours prior. For a match that felt like a war, the clear visual of an unsatisfied Britt Baker eyeing the belt teased that this may have only just been the opening battle.
There’s no doubt the victory marks the start of a promising new program for the pairing of Baker and Statlander. Former space alien Kris Statlander just marked two of her reign’s most significant highlights thus far on back-to-back nights. It was a historic match, with a good finish, in a well chosen venue, before a hot crowd. So why the salty opening line?
Because, despite how AEW tries to spin it, it's still an affirmation of the status quo. Because it's another non-answer AEW owner Tony Khan can point to in the next media scrum as proof of his "commitment to the women's division." Because it's the another limp overture towards diversity without meaningful change. The newest, shiniest feather in a pretty pathetic cap, to be honest.
Another loop of the same holding pattern AEW's women have been stuck in for the promotion's entire four-year lifespan. Four years of match cards with one women’s match, maybe two if it’s a pay per view (one of which gets relegated to the pre-show). Four years of struggle and pain and footnotes and trivia answers.
In the cover-my-ass paragraph of this essay, I said in theory AEW’s booking couldn’t be more perfect. So what’s the problem? As I said, “in theory.” In practice, one change would make the main event perfect. A sign that actual, meaningful change had come to AEW’s roster: if Collision’s first main event women’s match wasn’t its only women’s match.
Let's return to the subject of Jade Cargill for a second. You know, the thesis of this whole gosh darn essay. With Jade showing incredible class in her willingness on her last night in the company to do the favor for Kris Statlander by giving Statlander a clean pinfall victory, Kris got the rub from an all-time inaugural champion with whom the TBS belt will always be inextricably tied.
Jade's undefeated 60-0 run was, and continues to be, a career-defining and historic achievement (to any of you detractors: she was great, sorry you can't deal with it). Despite having now lost to Kris Statlander both under dubious and non-dubious circumstances, I would argue Jade looks no less impressive for it. In fact, I think Jade comes out of her AEW run now having been defeated as the far more intriguing prospect going forward than, say, Goldberg did coming out of his winning streak.
That's what access to TV time and long-term storytelling can do for a star! Jade Cargill was an amazing prospect built to perfection. She was the archetype. And she left. She left because she saw what lay ahead of her.
No longer the TBS champion, what was next for Cargill? Going back after Kris Statlander right away wouldn't have done anything for Cargill's character. I don't think Jade looks good as the humbled former champion who couldn't recapture glory. What was left for Jade in AEW? The big prize: the AEW Women's World Championship.
And then what? Splitting one match a night with one or two other storylines? A woman of Jade Cargill's talents? Please.
If Jade continues to improve at the rate she has, there's no reason she couldn't be the next Chyna or Beth Phoenix or Brock Lesnar-level, Big Four pay per view special attraction. Why wouldn't Jade Cargill take her chances in WWE? They know how to fumble a sure thing--just ask Cody Rhodes. They also know how to make the defecting AEW golden child look like a million bucks--just ask Cody Rhodes.
The women of AEW have to fight for time and space to tell their stories--time and space freely afforded to the men. Only one women's match per show means only one storyline gets to advance. The others spin their wheels in backstage segments or don’t make television at all. Women don't get to put on great matches, tell compelling stories, get themselves over, or push the medium of wrestling in Tony Khan's AEW. For some reason (sexism), only the men get to do that.
AEW requires its women to do that while traveling in slow motion. Storytelling lives and dies on momentum. Stories want to get to the point. We don’t invest time and emotion into a page-turner for the joy of turning pages. It's because we want to see what happens next.
Currently, there are two active storylines in AEW involving women (as opposed to the dozen or so storylines involving men): Kris Statlander’s ongoing defense of the TBS Championship and the turmoil involving the former Outcasts. With these two stories unfolding in tandem, AEW’s women are stuck moving at half speed. Only one of these storylines gets a match per show. Sorry, Shida. See you in six to twelve months, I guess.
Like any promotion building up a new star, AEW padded Jade's records with a decent number of bouts against jobbers and enhancement talent. Many of these squashes played out on the confusingly named AEW Dark and AEW Dark Elevation YouTube series, both of which are being phased out. The immediate effect will be women having even less access to matches and chances to appear on screen for AEW, even if only in front of a few hundred people in a non-televised capacity. Where else will women on AEW’s roster get to compete? Ring of Honor? Sure, but Ring of Honor is an internet-only show, meaning it still doesn't get women performers on TV.
Women had six matches total across every AEW show and promotion per week. That was the "good times." They’re going down to four. Half of an entire promotion's roster gets four matches a week, and the other half gets 25. How do you build multiple storylines with so little TV time to present a program?
That loss of access to TV time and chances to build a fanbase is tragic for the women's division. We are robbed not only of the chance to build another Jade Cargill (hell, another Skye Blue! Or Leyla Hirsch, or Red Velvet, or Big Swole, or Kiera Hogan...), not because of an absence of talent or star power. On the contrary: Britt Baker, Taya Valkyrie, Toni Storm, Kris Statlander, Nyla Rose, Hikaru Shida, Thunder Rosa, Jamie Hayter, Willow Nightingale, Riho, and Ruby Soho could form the foundation of an all-time great women’s roster and put on endless stellar matches if fans ever got to actually see the AEW women in action and find out what they're about.
As these opportunities vanish, Tony Khan dances around the subject. He deflects and knowingly gives non-answers he’s never pressed on. He has a serious problem with how he treats the women he employs. He needs to address those problems and correct them. Tony Khan needs to show leadership, do the right thing, listen to fans, and stop kneecapping the women's roster with an arbitrary one match per night limit. This isn’t just about one wrestler signing a contract or TV time or a presenting a “product.” It’s about equality.
That four years have gone by without the issue so much as being addressed is a failure of leadership. Some of the most talented performers in the sport do not deserve to be stuck in first gear as punishment for not being men. It's sexist, it's unjust, and it's detrimental to the the sport. AEW has tried in some ways to make progress, but overtures to diversity and inclusion feel hypocritical when half the roster is being marginalized.
Jade was the project, and she was by any measure a bonafide success, but she couldn’t have reached those heights by getting more TV matches any other woman on the roster received. That 60-0 record wasn't reached by sharing. AEW shined her star with access to TV time and match exposure the rest of the division simply didn't have. With that streak broken, her presentation was going to suffer in AEW's system, so why not look elsewhere? She's not going to settle for rising up the pecking order but falling down the card. I'm sorry. People don't work that way.
This is in no way a criticism of Jade Cargill or a condemnation of her decision to sign with WWE. I wish her well, and as much as I wish it weren't the case, I think she made the right decision. That said, I'm sad to see her go. I was a Jade Cargill fan since before her streak was a streak. AEW booked Jade preferentially because they believed in her, and she more than earned her push. She was the star we thought. But she was also smart enough to realize that if AEW was only ever going to push one woman as its big star, sooner or later, it would no longer be her.
A fair bit of reporting on Cargill's departure from AEW casts the former champ as a bit of a mercenary in leaving the place that made her a star in favor of the bigger company and the bigger payday. That her departure is perhaps poor form and comes across as a bit ungrateful. That's a narrative. Not to mention a really disingenuous way to say "Jade Cargill understands her value." Jade left AEW because Jade understood that value far better than AEW ever did. Jade saw the writing on the wall of vanishing opportunity in a crowded division and smartly decided to look for a nicer wall. Loath as I am to give WWE any credit whatsoever, I can't fault them for taking an obvious open goal.
And until women get more than one match a night on AEW, this story will keep happening. Do you want to see Jamie Hayter go to WWE? Kris Statlander? Don't even speak it into existence.
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