Candice LeRae Gargano was born on September 29, 1985, in New York City. She is a professional wrestler from the United States. She is best known for her time in WWE when she was a part of The Way and competed on the NXT brand under the ring name Candice LeRae.
LeRae has previously held the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship. She is also well-known for her work on the American independent circuit, particularly with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). She has won the PWG World Tag Team Championship once. As a result, she is the promotion’s only female championship holder.
Candice LeRae Biography
| Name | Candice LeRae |
| Original Name | Candice Dawson |
| Date of Birth | September 29, 1985 |
| Birth Place | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Age | 36 |
| Profession | American professional wrestler |
| Father name | Not Known |
| Mother Name | Not Known |
| Siblings | 2 brothers |
| Husband | Johnny Gargano (m. 2016) |
| Children | Quill Gargano (Feb 2022) |
| Trainer | Bill Anderson Jesse Hernandez T.J. Perkins |
| Debut | EWF-2002 Pro Wrestling Guerrilla-2006 DDT Pro-Wrestling-2016 WWE-2017 |
| Height | 5′ 2″ |
| Weight | 110 lb (50 kg) |
Candice LeRae Childhood
Candice Dawson was born and reared in Riverside, California, a Los Angeles suburb. She grew up watching professional wrestling with her two brothers and developed an interest in the sport.
Dawson had several male cousins in addition to her two brothers, and she was sometimes the sole girl when they played sports together. Dawson went to an unidentified college and received a degree in culinary arts after being in a marching band where she played flute and piccolo. She afterward worked as a baker at Universal Studios Hollywood for a few years.
According to some sources, she was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This misunderstanding, according to Dawson, stems from a choice made by an independent promoter early in her wrestling career. The promoter in question did not see Dawson as a potential heel, so she was billed as a Canadian in an attempt to generate heat.
Private life
On September 16, 2016, LeRae married fellow professional wrestler Johnny Gargano at Disneyland. They were included in a short documentary about their wrestling relationship dynamics. On August 12, 2021, the couple revealed that LeRae was expecting their first child. Quill Gargano, the child, was born on February 17, 2022.
LeRae is a big lover of Disney movies and the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL.
She has three brothers, one of whom her parents adopted when she was in high school.
Wrestling Professional Career
The Early Years (2002-2005)
LeRae began her wrestling career in 2005 with Empire Wrestling Federation. LeRae has worked for a number of independent promotions in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
DDT Pro-Wrestling and PWG Pro-Wrestling (2006-2018)
LeRae rose to fame following her participation with PWG and DDT Pro-Wrestling. She competed in multiple hardcore and intergender wrestling matches against Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kevin Steen, Johnny Gargano, Joey Ryan, and Chuck Taylor, among others. She won numerous championships and wrestled for different promotions during her stint with the promotions.
WWE (2018-2022)
Competitor of Single (2018-2020)
She competed in the first Mae Young Classic in 2017, but lost. In 2018, she made her NXT debut, assisting Johnny Gargano against Andrade and Zelina Vega. She competed in the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble bout and lost.
On NXT, she was heavily featured in the women’s division. She was given numerous championship bouts but did not win any of them. In 2019, she was attacked and turned heel by Io Shirai. She lost to Shirai at TakeOver Toronto. She competed in WarGames as a member of Team Ripley and won.
The Procedure (2020-2022)
LeRae turned heel in April when she attacked Ciampa and helped Gargano win. The pair had a feud with Keith Lee and Mia Yim, but they lost. Indie Hartwell teamed up with Candice LeRae after TakeOver In Your House. In 2020, she began a feud with Io Shirai, whom she defeated twice, at TakeOver 31 and Halloween Havoc. Team LeRae defeated Team Blackheart in WarGames.
Austin Theory, Candice LeRae, Indie Hartwell, and Johnny Gargano founded The Way in November. Hartwell and LeRae competed in the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic in 2021 but were defeated. LeRae and Hartwell won the WWE NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship in May after defeating Blackheart and Moon. They were defeated by Stark and Shirai at the Great American Bash. She revealed her pregnancy and took maternity leave in August.
Candice LeRae WWE departure
Earlier this year, it was reported that LeRae’s contract was slated to expire in the spring, but there was speculation that WWE may extend her deal due to her time away with injuries and her first pregnancy. She was expected to stay with the corporation until early 2023 at one point.
WWE added LeRae to their official Alumni roster this morning, while Fightful Select acknowledged that her contract had expired.
LeRae, like her husband Johnny Gargano, is currently a free agent.
Gargano quit WWE in December of last year and has not wrestled since. He has begun to sign contracts, but there is no indication on whether he is ready to commit to a contract and return to ring action. Gargano and LeRae welcomed their first child together in February, and it was expected that Gargano would take a few months off to be with his family before returning to work.
LeRae began working for WWE in the middle of 2017. She announced her pregnancy in August of last year, but remained on TV in a non-wrestling position for a while before wrestling again on July 6 at the NXT Great American Bash, where she and Indi Hartwell lost the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles to Io Shirai and Zoe Stark. LeRae departs WWE as the former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion.
It was previously rumoured that LeRae and Gargano were still on good terms with WWE and that the organisation wanted them back if at all possible. There is no information yet on what transpired during contract negotiations, but we will keep you updated.