Jade Cargill Reportedly Dealing with Backstage Heat Issues & Involved in Incident with Shayna Baszler Prior to Recent Absence

As noted before, this past Saturday’s WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 event featured Jade Cargill making her surprise return from injury and attacked Naomi revealing her to have been Cargill’s mystery attacker.

Prior to her return, Cargill had been out of action following an injury angle on the November 22nd WWE SmackDown show in Salt Lake City, Utah. The situation with Cargill’s injury status at the time led to conflicting reports over it being a genuine injury or just a storyline injury. Cargill’s injury situation had also been rumored to be a potential cover for an unknown backstage political issue involving Cargill.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources confirmed that Cargill had been dealing with backstage heat and was involved in a backstage incident prior to her absence.

Meltzer reported that this backstage incident involved a confrontation between Cargill and Shayna Baszler. Several people spoken to reportedly confirmed that this incident took place but did not provide details beyond saying Cargill had rubbed enough people in the RAW Women’s division the wrong way. Meltzer reported that Baszler had wanted to fight Cargill backstage until management found out and calmed the situation down.

Meltzer reported that the time frame of this incident took place during the Pure Fusion Collective vs. Cargill & Bianca Belair feud. Meltzer also reported that the cause of the incident was not just one thing and the belief is that some of this had stemmed from inside the ring during those matches and some did not.

One female talent spoken to reportedly stated that they believed the tension within the SmackDown side of WWE’s women’s locker room was worse than the RAW side.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources confirmed that Cargill had been dealing with backstage heat prior to her absence and generated more heat following her recent return.

In regards to Cargill’s incident with Baszler, Sapp reported that those spoken to stated that Cargill took issue with something that had unfolded in the ring. Sapp reported that the word around the locker room was that Cargill had said something to the effect that Baszler needed to learn how to work.

This in-ring incident in question reportedly stemmed from a match in Scotland where Cargill tapped out in what was not meant to be the finish for the match.

Sapp reported that Cargill’s recent absence also caused more heat within the locker room due to talent being upset that Cargill had requested and was granted time off for the holiday tour while they had been told by WWE officials that working the tour was mandatory for them. Cargill and WWE officials reportedly had claimed Cargill was injured for the reason for her getting time off from the tour but many talent doubted the validity of this claim.

In regards to Cargill’s recent return to WWE, Sapp reported that one talent spoken to brought up Cargill’s video promo where she said the locker room was full of wolves in sheep’s clothing and how this was taken personally by several within the locker room due to the had previously kept the issue between Cargill and Baszler quiet before.

Sapp reported that high level WWE officials spoken to claimed that Cargill’s injury was legitimate and she was in fact willing to return to action sooner than she eventually did. Those same people spoken to reportedly stated that the company had opted to keep Cargill off television so that she could get cleared by their team and her being able to do additional training at the Performance Center before returning.