Jade Cargill is known for her power and athleticism in the ring, and recently revealed why she’s gone away from a more technical wrestling approach.
Speaking to Complex in a new interview (via Fightful), Cargill said that fan reception to her initial approach to wrestling is what made her change her mind. She went as far as to say she even trained under the legend Daniel Bryan at first.
“Daniel Bryan taught me so much technical wrestling and I tried it,” Cargill said. “I tried to do some technical wrestling, it’s funny because when I tried technical wrestling — I have tried it, go back at my old stuff at my previous company. I tried it, I had no reaction out of fans. I learned so much, I was training with him every week.
At the end of the day, Cargill said, fans simply wanted to see her be a more bruising, power oriented wrestler. It’s clearly worked for the star, who has risen to be one of WWE‘s biggest stars in the women’s division and company overall.
“You know what fans want to see? Me picking somebody up and throwing somebody around, me talking my smack. They don’t want to see me on the ground grappling. I know how to grapple, I know how to do it, they don’t want to see that. They cheer, they boo, they get up out of their seats, they do what they need to do when I’m pounding to the ground, that’s what they like.”
When it comes to stars she’s trying to emulate now, she pointed to stars Booker T and Billy Gunn as inspiration.
“The person I can say that, [their] technique and advice I’m using, it’s two people. One is Booker T and the other one that I’m using is Billy Gunn. I kind of went away from what Billy Gunn was telling me initially,” said Cargill. “If you look at Billy Gunn, look at his size, he knows how to use his size. Other than Lash and Nia and probably Raquel, I’m amongst Raquel right now. I’m 5”10. I’m a big girl. There’s no reason why I should be going toe-to-toe with little girls. Look at the way I look, I’m just aesthetically pleasing. I can go, I pick people up, that’s what I do. I whoop ass, that’s what I do. I just look good with it too.”
READ MORE: Rhea Ripley Issues Explicit WrestleMania Warning to Jade Cargill on WWE SmackDown
