As we reported earlier, Jade Cargill has officially transitioned to WWE after wrapping up her time with AEW. AEW President Tony Khan broke his silence about Cargill’s departure during a media scrum for WrestleDream. Khan disclosed that he made multiple generous offers to Cargill during their contract negotiations. Below are the key takeaways:

Tony Khan on Contract Negotiations with Jade Cargill:

“I knew Jade’s contract had been ticking down and we were talking about a new contract and I was very interested in Jade coming back and we were having a negotiation. I made a very big offer and I thought it was a very fair offer. I think she was considering it, and then she asked for a bigger offer and then I went up again, and I kind of thought that was going to do it. Then, it didn’t, which I was surprised because to be honest, I came up to a number that was higher than her original ask. I don’t know what I would have had to do at that point. I was a little surprised. I did really hope that Jade would be back.”

Tony Khan on Managing Jade Cargill's AEW Exit:

“I think I tried to handle it, when we were down to the nitty gritty and we were down to the final couple of weeks and we still hadn’t agreed to something, then it was at the point where I said, ‘if you aren’t going to stay, I’m going to give you the best possible exit.’ I have only good things to say about Jade. I really enjoyed working with her. She was a great part of AEW, she is always welcome here, I tried to give her the best possible send off I could. The classiest send off I’ve ever seen in wrestling was, at the time, was when Ric Flair left the WWF. He did a match with Mr. Perfect, who was a natural person for him to wrestle, and that was it, he was gone."

On Jade Cargill’s Final Moments in AEW:

“The natural thing was, there was no rematch against Kris Statlander, so I had her do a run in knowing it would set up the match where she would likely finish up unless we came to an agreement at the last minute, which I was really still hoping would happen, down to the last minute. I only have positive things to say. I thought I had a good plan where, ‘if this is it, that’s where we’ll finish up.’”