Jade Cargill vs. Naomi and WWE WrestleMania 41 Matches That Exceeded Expectations

Every WrestleMania, there are matches that exceed expectations, becoming pleasant surprises that accentuate the WWE's most prestigious card. This year's extravaganza was no different, with a few contests shining brighter than imagined and helping to bolster a show that needed them.

The grudge match between Jade Cargill and Naomi was one of them.

Dive deeper into that contest and more with this recap of these expectation busters.

For two consecutive WrestleManias, LA Knight has entered the show in a match that did not receive the hype, pomp, or circumstance of others on the card but managed the show up and show out anyway, leading to one of the better matches of the night.

Saturday night, The Megastar defended the United States Championship against Jacob Fatu, the result of a feud that received plenty of screen time on SmackDown in the month or two ahead of the show but did not have the buzz of other championship encounters entering the Showcase of the Immortals.

All the champion and challenger did was show out, delivering a surprisingly dramatic match given the outcome was essentially a foregone conclusion. Cool spots, a great reversal that saw Knight counter a moonsault into Blunt Force Trauma, and a win for The Samoan Werewolf kept fans invested and earned the match positive reviews in its wake.

After a year in which Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre reached new heights in their careers, headlining premium live events and becoming cornerstones of the Raw brand's creative efforts, some fans were rather dismayed to find them in a feud with each other, ahead of a match that felt like a step down for both Superstars.

If they were not convinced by the strong brawls the competitors had across WWE television during their run up to WrestleMania, they certainly were once the bell rang.

McIntyre and Priest proceeded to have a good, old-fashioned, weapons-filled brawl in what WWE referred to a as Sin City Street Fight. They pummeled each other with plunder and took some big bumps, including one from Priest in which he tried for The Undertaker's Old School, only to be shoved from the ropes and through two tables on the arena floor.

McIntyre would win the match with a perfectly placed Claymore that drove his opponent's head through a steel chair, but it was clear in the aftermath of the contest that both men had won and proved the doubters (and their low expectations) wrong.

There were real questions about Jade Cargill's ability to hang on the grand stage in singles competition entering WrestleMania, especially since she had been primarily utilized as a tag team wrestler in her first year with WWE.

An largely unproven singles competitor (at least in this promotion), on a worldwide stage in which any little slip up would result in scrutiny, against a performer in Naomi working heel for the first time in a decade, seemed like a recipe for potential disaster.

Instead, Cargill showed out, her power game meshing well with Naomi's style. That her opponent once again proved her value to the company from an in-ring perspective, turning in a performance that should earn her more opportunities moving forward, only enhanced the contest.

Cargill avenged the attack by Naomi that set this match up in the first place, the former TNA Knockouts champions reminded the audience of her in-ring excellence, and the result was one of the real surprises of the Saturday evening card.