WWE: Why Candice LeRae Is Likely Aleister Black’s Attacker

We all know that the dubious attack on former NXT champion Aleister Black never had anything to do with Aleister, and it had everything to do with the fallout from the ongoing war between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. That is why the prime suspect should be the most obvious person that somehow is still the last person we’d expect.

We all watched last Wednesday on NXT as William Regal confronted Johnny Gargano in the ring and asked him if he’d been the one behind the blindsided attack on Aleister Black. His answer was simple and inconclusive – “Look into my eyes. You’ll know your answer.”

Johnny couldn’t give Regal an answer because there were two – yes and no.

You see, Johnny didn’t lay a hand on Aleister that night because the battle raging between Johnny and his archenemy Tommaso Ciampa had become so big that Johnny would never have to use his own two hands to make sure nothing stood in the way of him finally beating (whatever that means now) Ciampa.

The real attacker is not likely not Johnny himself because Johnny Gargano is entirely too obsessed with taking out Ciampa that he would mow over barricades, speakers, tables, steel steps, anything to get to him, and that would very well include having to endure a triple threat match.

The real attacker is likely someone did not want to risk Johnny not coming out the victor of this match, so they took out as many unnecessary factors as possible. The real attacker is someone who would have done whatever it took to make sure the match between Johnny and Ciampa the last one.

That person is Candice LeRae.

We think about how Candice LeRae is feeling about the feud between husband and Tommaso Ciampa when she’s inadvertently getting hit with things at ringside, but have we really been considering what she’s thinking otherwise? Outside of Gargano, who’s lost every sense of himself throughout this feud thus far, and Ciampa, who’s just an evil jerk, Candice LeRae has undoubtedly had the most at stake in this feud. Candice has been uprooted by this feud too, her professional life at NXT and  her life outside of it.

Candice probably wants the old Johnny back more than Johnny wants himself back, and as his wife, she’d likely do anything she could possibly do to help him out in or out of the ring. She think, or rather hopes, that as soon as Johnny beats Ciampa one last time, and has exacted his Shakespearean revenge, or whatever the goal is at this point, that this will all be over. Johnny can have his life back, and she can have hers.

If she has to attack Aleister to keep him out of the match to give Johnny the best possible odds to win, why wouldn’t we believe that she would?

Candice LeRae has had enough, and she knows now that no matter what she says to him, she can’t get Johnny to back off from Ciampa. So what’s left for her to do but give him the clearest path to what he thinks will be a win, so that he can move on?

It makes sense for the progression of the story as well. We all know Aleister had to be written out of the match because of an injury, so we have to believe that circumstances surrounding this event were meant to have reverberations outside of him that would be dealt with.

I wouldn’t be surprised for Johnny to find that saying he knows he needs to change and actually changing are very different things in the next coming weeks. Perhaps seeing that Johnny’s gone so far off the deep end that he’s caused the one person who’s constantly in his corner to start acting in his likeness will finally prove to be the impetus for Johnny finally making a change.

Besides, why else would Nikki Cross, out of all people asked about the attack in interviews or by Regal himself, be the only one on the roster bragging about “a secret”?

Because she’s allowed to be in the women’s locker room.

It’s the most obvious answer to this mystery, and it’s genius because no one would ever think that Candice LeRae, barely over five feet tall, would have the nerve to blindside the former NXT Champion.

I think that we’re about to find that not only does Candice LeRae have nerve, but all the motive she could ever need.