Over the past few years, WWE’s added a few layers to their fictional world. The promotion (and others, to be fair — but love it or hate it, WWE is the industry to much of the world) has increasingly used social media, outside interviews, and even the so-called dirt sheets as storytelling tools. Those tools are used to convince those not involved in the story that what they’re seeing on television is “real”, often by introducing information outsiders think they aren’t supposed to know (rumors) into kayfabe.
According to Dave Meltzer (who, love it or hate it, is the pro wrestling reporter/pundit to much of the world) on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, that’s what we’ve seen play out between Rhea Ripley and WWE Women’s champion Jade Cargill over the past few days since Ripley won the Elimination Chamber match Saturday night (Feb. 28) to earn her place as Cargill’s WrestleMania 42 opponent.
The social media posts we saw Saturday-to-Monday from Ripley, Cargill, Chelsea Green, and Piper Niven are all planned by WWE Creative, says Meltzer. But the issues, and sometimes even the wording of the posts themselves, are taken from legitimate beef the women’s locker room has with Cargill — or had since her high profile signing in 2023. Specifically, Dave pointed to tension that allegedly led to a backstage confrontation between Jade and Shayna Baszler in 2024.
According to what Meltzer’s hearing and piecing together, the inclusion of Green and Niven is designed to sell the Ripley/Cargill heat as authentic. That’s also based on backstage drama we think we know about.
“The deal that’s interesting about this angle is, they’ve involved other people to make you think it’s real. The funny part is that, ever since that thing with Jade and Shayna Baszler from months and months ago, when I’m reading this, I’m thinking ‘that is exactly what these people would say’. I’m not saying the people who tweeted have said that to me, I’ll only say that those words have been said to me.
“There is a prevailing viewpoint there among people and talent that is identical to some of the things that were tweeted. It’s a really interesting thing, because it is a work, if it was real they’re not doing it, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven, they’re not gonna bury someone on their own team in public, because they know you can’t do this, it is not allowed. But they are using the thoughts of many people when doing this angle. They’re trying to make it out like it’s a shoot and they’re gonna really fight at this show. It’s weird because when you do it on Twitter…. It’s just an attempt. It is an attempt to get some heat for the match.”
Whatever the roots of it, the biggest tell that what we’ve seen this week has been agreed on by all parties — at least to this writer? Everyone’s tweets are still up. If they were really “shooting”, Rhea’s Instagram Story wouldn’t the only thing disappearing… some of those posts about politicking and preferential treatment would be, too.
And Meltzer’s account of things doesn’t necessarily contradict others, like WrestleVotes and Bodyslam.net’s Cory Hayes, who indicate the issues between Ripley and Cargill are legit. People with real heat have worked together to make money in this business since its inception. Their ‘Mania feud is coming together late, and they don’t have any other story between them. If they really don’t like or even respect each other, why not try to use that convince fans they might shoot on each in the ring? Especially on a show reportedly dealing with slow ticket sales.
That’s just my read on a very pro wrestling situation. Give us yours in the comments below, Cagesiders!
