Backstage Update on Jade Cargill & Rhea Ripley Social Media Incident and Locker Room Heat on Cargill
As noted before, WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill and Rhea Ripley got involved in an online feud this past week that was initially meant to help build their storyline feud for their title match at WrestleMania 42 but turned into a heated “shoot” instead after allegations made by Cargill claiming Ripley politics her way into getting big pushes for her big star status in the Women’s division in WWE. Cargill is believed to have been dealing with backstage heat with the women’s locker room over this incident and other past issues involving her in the company.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that this was not a “shoot” incident between Cargill and Ripley due to WWE usually forbids that type of thing from its talents on social media platforms. Meltzer reported that the stuff that was said about Cargill was almost identical to what several other women talents in WWE have told him over the past year and really starting after the Shayna Baszler and Cargill backstage confrontation went public.
In regards to Cargill’s heat within WWE’s women’s locker room, Meltzer reported that part of is due to natural resentment over her only being pushed due to her unique look and not due to her being good in the ring nor anything special on promos. Meltzer reported that the general feeling was that Cargill didn’t get over to the level others have, didn’t improve in the ring and had the bad reputation of blaming her partners when matches had issues. Meltzer also reported that most of the women in WWE’s locker room believe they are better than Cargill but didn’t get the same chances which leads to resentment on their end.
WWE’s Original Plan For WWE Women’s Title Match At WrestleMania 42
Jade Cargill is currently scheduled to be defending her WWE Women’s Championship match against Rhea Ripley at this April’s WrestleMania 42 event in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ripley became the official challenger following her winning this year’s Women’s Elimination Chamber match at last Saturday’s Elimination Chamber 2026 event.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials original plans were for Cargill to have defended her title against Bianca Belair instead.
Belair reportedly was internally planned to win either the Women’s Royal Rumble or the Women’s Elimination Chamber to set up her match against Cargill at WrestleMania 42. Those plans were dropped due to Belair’s broken finger recovery suffering severe complications causing her to have a much longer than initially expected road to recovery.
Backstage Update on Road Dogg’s WWE Departure
As noted before, WWE SmackDown co-lead writer Brian “Road Dogg” James recently departed from WWE. James’ departure from WWE was due to issues related to his unhappiness with his job and diminishing role in WWE’s creative for some time.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that one reason for James’ decision to leave WWE was him being unhappy with his annual review report for his job that recently he got from the company.
One person close to the situation confirmed that James’ departure was something that had been brewing for some time.
Meltzer reported that James had also been dealing with a convention that he had been scheduled to attend later this month that was originally approved by WWE only to later have it be rescinded and him having to cancel the booking.