Jade Cargill is headed back to WrestleMania with the WWE women’s championship, and she says Rhea Ripley is walking into the wrong fight. Cargill will defend the title on Night 2 of WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas after Ripley won the women’s Elimination Chamber to earn the match.
“I mean, I’m me. I’m Jade Cargill. I’m the champ. I’m stronger. I’m bigger,” Cargill said, adding that she has “done this before.” She said, “The only way to go is up. She’s been up. It’s time to go down.”
The title defense is the latest stop in a run that has kept Cargill in the middle of WWE’s biggest stage since she joined the company in 2023. She won the women’s title at Saturday Night’s Main Event in November by beating Tiffany Stratton, and she has spent the season carrying that momentum into WrestleMania season again. For readers tracking the buildup, Ripley is also under pressure ahead of the clash, with the match now locked in for Las Vegas.
Cargill’s path to this point has been built on marquee wins at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania 40, she teamed with Naomi and Bianca Belair to defeat Dakota Kai, Asuka and Kairi Sane, and she pinned Dakota Kai for the victory. At WrestleMania 41, she beat Naomi in the first non-stipulation women’s singles match at the event, a result that only added to her record on the biggest show of the year.
That history is part of why Cargill sounded so confident when she talked about the rematch and about where she thinks the division stands now. “I’m 2-0. I’m red hot. I just formed a group with Michin and B-Fab. Who’s going to stop us?” she said, before quickly clarifying the dynamic around them: “We’re more of allies. We’re not a group, we’re more of allies.”
There is a catch in Cargill’s own story, though. She said she spent too long trying to do things the right way and finally stopped listening to that voice telling her to push harder and move differently. “I was trying to do things the right way when all along, that little voice in me was telling me, ‘No, you know the right way, and the right way is left. Don’t go right. Don’t listen. It’s gonna get you nowhere. You’re going to be going in circles for years,’” she said. “And that’s what I was doing.”
That is the tension around WrestleMania 42: Cargill arrives with the title, the size, and the results to back up the swagger, while Ripley arrives with the Elimination Chamber win and the chance to turn that momentum into a championship. The next chapter comes in Las Vegas, and for Cargill, it will test whether the same force that has carried her through WrestleMania returns can hold off one of WWE’s most physical challengers.
