Jade Cargill has revisited the gruesome injury she suffered during a WWE Women’s Championship match in September 2025, an incident that left her in need of stitches and momentarily stole the show for all the wrong reasons.
Cargill was busted open badly during a triple threat match against then-champion Tiffany Stratton and Nia Jax on the September 26 edition of SmackDown, suffering a deep gash above her eye after being sent into the steel ring steps by Jax. Speaking with O’Shea Jackson Jr. and TJ Jefferson on the No Contest Wrestling Podcast, Cargill explained that the steps were supposed to give way when she hit them, and that she had no idea how serious the injury was at first.
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In fact, Cargill’s initial concern was cosmetic. “I looked down, and you could look at the video and a whole stream of blood just poured into my hand. And I was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s our blood.’ But all I was thinking was like, ‘Dang,’ because I have a white wig,” she said. “I got to figure out how I’m going to clean this out of my head.”
It was the crowd that tipped her off to the severity. “Daph was like, ‘You are bleeding.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, well, it’s probably not that bad,'” Cargill recalled, referring to referee Daphanie LaShaunn. “And then in unison, the entire arena was like just gasp.” The reaction forced her to abandon her plans for the moment. “After what I did to Nia, I was going to get on the announcer’s table and beat my chest like King Kong and talk a lot of smack. But then in unison the arena did that, and then all the women in the front row turned around in disgust.”
Cargill finished the match before learning just how bad it was backstage, where Triple H delivered a sobering assessment. “Triple H said, ‘Yeah, we gonna have to see about plastic surgery.’ And I was like, ‘Whoa, for you to say that, must be bad, because he’s seen so much,'” she said. She detailed the extent of the damage. “It was hanging. My brow was crooked. It was three layers deep, and they had to cut it because it was so crooked.”
Cargill added that Triple H was quick to get the graphic visual off WWE’s broadcast. “From what I was told, Triple H backstage was like, ‘Get it off her. Get the camera off her,'” she said.
Though Stratton retained the title that night, Cargill got her revenge soon after, defeating her for the WWE Women’s Championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event in November. Her reign lasted nearly 170 days, until WrestleMania.
