Candice LeRae can certainly be considered a queen of the independent circuit of professional wrestling. She ran the Indies hard and did not step away from that platform of pro wrestling without quite the impressive amount of accolades…accolades that most definitely set her apart from many in the industry.
First off, the woman has been wrestling for 20 years…she started her adventure in 2002, and has made significant stops in Pro Wrestling Guerilla, DDT Pro, Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, Combat Zone Wrestling, TNA, Shimmer, and quite a few other stops.
via Wrestling Reality HD /YouTube
She would then step into the world of NXT in 2017, where she not only dominated, but also became a sort of mother hen to many young stars that would enter the developmental platform of WWE’s, helping them unselfishly along the way.
And as many of them would be given opportunities she deserved, specifically runs on the main roster, she and her husband Johnny Gargano stayed behind in NXT, raising the bar higher and higher, and all until it was time to move onto a different phase of their lives…parenthood.
Becoming a mom
They would each step away from the world of professional wrestling…a world they love and dedicated their lives to, and all to start a family…Candice giving birth to their first son, Quill Gargano, who was born on February 17th, 2022.
Many wondered if that was it for the couple of talented pro wrestlers; some even wondering if they did return to the squared circle one day, would they perhaps be jumping ship, going to AEW as Adam Cole had done; he of course was a contemporary of theirs in NXT.
Well, Johnny would make a return, and yes, finally on the main roster, and Candice wouldn’t be all that far behind. She recently made some statements about what made her want to be a mother, stepping away, and just who inspired her to return to what she loved to do…all while speaking to Ringside Podcast. Here’s some of what she had to say:
“When Johnny and I decided to have a baby, we were going into it saying, ‘When the time comes and we make this decision, I’m the one that has to step away. When do I feel good?’ There is just never a right time. It’s so hard as a woman, especially a woman with a career, to figure out what that right time is…
We were doing all the stuff with The Way and that was a big part of it. Doing stuff with The Way, I started to feel very whole and very rounded. Me and Johnny, working with Austin Theory and Indi, I felt like getting to work with Indi made me feel like I was coming full circle and I was passing whatever I had learned in all my years to her…
The women who have done this before me gave me the little bit of courage to come back. I didn’t know if this was something that was going to be possible. Becky Lynch kind of set a bar really high for us moms coming back because she came back better than ever…
Her doing that had me stop and go, ‘Wow, this is really possible. It’s doable and possible. She did it and look at her.’ She came back better than ever. ‘We can do this.’ It’s really awesome. Timing is everything and the timing has been absolutely perfect.”
She returned to pro wrestling and yes on the main roster, and although many were happy, as was I, I was also singing a chorus of, “Well it’s about time!”
She is a standout pro wrestler, not just someone to say about, “Okay let’s give her a chance….” No, she should be up there having feuds with Ripley, Belair, Nikki Cross, etc.. Oh yeah, and by the way, these were women she was feuding and teaming with in NXT, and as they made their own way through to the main roster, she stayed behind, holding the fort, as I already sort of mentioned.
To my estimation, LeRae (and Gargano, as well as Ciampa), should have been on WWE’s main roster eons ago…straight from even the indies if you ask me, but then again, we wouldn’t have had all of the epic memories we have gotten from them in NXT, which as a wrestling fan as well, I am grateful for.
On the main roster, she has already tangled with Damage CTRL…and although she is a ‘face’ right now, she also plays an exceptional heel. This could be a direction for her on the main roster for sure, but then again, she can handle whatever angle she’s given. I say, hand her the ball, and let her score as many touchdowns as she is quite obviously capable of scoring, and that, at the end of the day, is MANY!
