Five must-see matches from Candice LeRae’s career

It was big news when Candice LeRae made her debut on WWE’s main roster on Monday Night Raw. That’s because of her tenured history in the industry known as professional wrestling. And LeRae started from the bottom of said industry racking in quite a number of incredible matches. Today we’ll be looking at just 5 must-see matches from her incredible pro wrestling career.

It was shortly after her husband Johnny Gargano’s contract with WWE expired that Candice LeRae went on maternity leave and let her own contract with the company expire, she deciding not to renew it (2022). The respective futures of both her and her husband were in question and fans eagerly wanted to know what was next for both talented individuals.

Of course after months of speculation, and as they got ‘Baby Wrestling’ settled into his life here on earth (by the way welcome, to the adorable Baby Gargano—Quill, officially), Gargano finally did return to WWE and this time on the main roster, and this was after dominating alongside stars like Ciampa, Adam Cole and others in NXT.

Of course Candice LeRae did quite a wee bit of dominating on that NXT roster herself, and she too made her way back to WWE just a few short weeks ago.

The term ‘it’s about darn time’ comes to mind, and for both of these epically talented wrestlers.

There are two types of NXT stars: The ones that are completely homegrown and hone their crafts, cultivate their skills and eventually shine on the NXT roster and then the main roster of WWE, and then there are the indie wrestling stars…the stars that have a cult following out there on the circuit…wrestling in rec. centers and church basements for dozens of people and perhaps even sometimes wrestling for free or just some much-needed exposure.

Both Gargano and LeRae are products of that environment, and they flourished there and bloomed into the aforementioned epic talents they are today.

So yeah, LeRae showing up on Raw wasn’t just a happy little occurrence…it was destined to happen and should have happened sooner if you ask me.

Even BayLey had a lot to say about Candice LeRae in a recent interview. She, staying in character, still applaud LeRae in her very own way, and the outcome of her debut and these words by Bayley are promising for LeRae’s future on the main roster. Here’s some of what Bayley had to say:

"“Well you know who would be number one I guess? Candice LeRae [is who I would defend the Raw Women’s Title against if I win at Extreme Rules]. She showed up. She won in like what? A minute-thirty seconds? Nikki [A.S.H.] had a little meltdown. She’s not really there fully mentally and that’s the only reason Candice was able to get the upper hand is because Nikki is going through a lot…But Candice LeRae, I know she’s gonna walk in here and think that she’s gonna take over this division because she’s super popular and she is trending and I hyped her up a lot so she can thank me. I mean I probably got her-her job back, let’s be honest. I tweeted about her so much.”-Via Die Woche #80 /Post Wrestling (Transcription)"

Today, we’ll be looking at 5 must-see matches from Candice LeRae’s career…and trust old Dom on this one…you’ll want to watch them again and again.

5. Candice LeRae vs. Johnny Gargano for Absolute Intense Wrestling

And it was for this promotion based out of Ohio that the future husband and wife would face each other in an inter-gender match. There are a lot of inter-gender matches throughout her career and each one is greater than the last, folks, believe me, and this match here is one of the many times the two would face each other, and it’s nothing short of a masterpiece.

4. Candice LeRae vs. Dakota Kai – NXT from November 27th, 2019

The two had quite the feud and the subsequent matches were indeed something to behold. It was after the betrayal by Dakota at that year’s WarGames to her own teammate, Tegan Nox, that this grudge began and this match was an offshoot of that betrayal. They would go on to have many more battles like this one here and it seems as though they aren’t done with one another just yet; they already crossed paths on Raw since Candice’s debut a few weeks back. Things should get interesting down the line for sure.

3. Team Shotzi vs. Team Candice – NXT WarGames (2020)

WarGames 2019 was absolutely full of surprises and delivered on all fronts, but the WarGames edition the following year was equally if not more of a powerhouse match.

Just look at the women involved in that match and on LeRae’s team: Raquel Rodriguez (then Gonzalez), Toni Storm, Dakota…and the opponents they faced in the ring that night which included Rhea Ripley…it was just a recipe for a glorious disaster, if that makes sense at all, each of these women delivering from frame to frame of that match. Perfection personified, and at the helm, of her team at least, was Candice LeRae.

2. Shayna Baszler vs. Candice LeRae – NXT Women’s Championship Match – WWE NXT from October 2nd, 2019

The two names together are promising enough. It was like back in the nineties if you went to a house show and saw the match lineup for the night and saw that Eddie Guerrero was set to face Chris Benoit, or The British Bulldog was set to face Owen Hart…you knew you were going to get a banger of a match.

The same thing can be said for these two. This match here was a masterpiece and I hope we see it again soon on the main roster.

1. The Young Bucks vs. The World’s Cutest Tag Team (Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan) – PWG 11

The word ‘insane’ comes to mind folks. This match is something a lot of people know about, and those people are hardcore pro wrestling fans, but I would hope that a lot more wrestling fans, specifically those that watch mostly or only the WWE product, would know about, and hopefully this here helps, because it’s something that can be considered a great match, yeah, but I would refer to it as a magnum opus.

This match is the type of art piece where the artist puts his or her soul, pain, dedication, past rejection and shattered dreams into…the kind of artwork that’s remembered long after that artist’s death and regarded as being a masterpiece. That’s this match from frame to frame, and all four participants should be proud of it, and perhaps mostly Candice LeRae who proved a heck of a lot in this match and shattered expectations and broke boundaries along the way.

Whoa! Hope we shone some light into her career for those of you just discovering this truly gifted athlete.

Here’s to seeing matches like this from Candice on the main roster. These days, there are plenty of stars for her to tangle with in the ring and the sky is the limit as the old expression goes.