Hello Reader! We’ve made it to halfway through this year-long project. As I mentioned a few weeks back, this time there’ll be no quarterly reflections as there was in Q1. This is because Rollins has now been absent from TV for 11 weeks, and in that same time Cargill has occupied a much less prominent role in the women’s division. Hopefully, things will change enough in the weeks ahead for me to offer some Q3 reflections. So, to week 26…
Jade Cargill – SmackDown
As has become the norm, Cargill’s appearance on TV this week takes the form of a backstage vignette. After heel stable Fatal Influence’s confrontation with new tag-team champions Alexa Bliss and Tatum Paxley, they bump into Cargill and friends backstage. As often when the Baddies are involved in segments like these, the women are fanned out in a semi-circle facing the camera. Cargill is stationed at the forefront of the shot, but this also means she’s at the edge. I’d read this as contributing to the democratic feel of the Baddies. Note that Cargill’s words bookend the confrontation: “If anything, you guys should be thanking me for taking out Charlotte [referring to the backstage assault on Charlotte Flair last week], but seems like it didn’t matter anyway [Fatal Influence still lost the belts].” / “Let’s go”. So Cargill sets the agenda and chooses when to bring it to a close. But the meat in this sandwich is Cargill’s allies B-Fab and Michin announcing they will be challenging for the tag titles next week. I’ll say it again – though Cargill is mostly presented as an egotistical leader of the group, she also supports her partners and the group functions as a coherent unit.
Another thought – when typing the title of this piece ‘Backstage tensions’, I considered, as I often do, wrestling’s presentation as a sport versus drama/soap opera. In team sport, the phrase ‘backstage tension’ could refer to fighting in the tunnel area between opposing sides. In televised drama, ‘backstage tension’ often refers to friction between colleagues in their working relationship. We shouldn’t be surprised that in pro-wrestling on-screen backstage tension doesn’t quite fit into either camp, yet plays on both ideas.
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