After competing at the inauguralMae Young Classic in 2017, Dawson signed with WWE in early 2018 and debuted for theNXT brand, where she became involved in her husbandJohnny Gargano's feuds before becoming a singles competitor. In 2020, Dawson joined Gargano, Indi Hartwell, andAustin Theory to form thevillainous factionThe Way, until it dissolved the following year. She left the company in May 2022 but returned in September that year.
Candice Dawson was born and raised inRiverside, California. She grew up watching professional wrestling with her two brothers and fell in love with the profession. In addition to her two brothers, Dawson has many male cousins, and was often the only girl when they would play sports together. After being in a marching band where she played flute and piccolo, Dawson went to an unspecified college and earned a degree inculinary arts, and worked atUniversal Studios Hollywood as abaker for a few years.[13]
Numerous outlets list her as being born inWinnipeg,Manitoba, Canada. According to Dawson, this misconception is due to a decision made by anindie promoter early in her wrestling career. The promoter in question did not perceive Dawson as a viableheel, so in an attempt to generateheat, she was billed as a Canadian.[10]
LeRae spent the first two years of her career wrestling for theEmpire Wrestling Federation (EWF) and the International Wrestling Council.[14] She appeared as a substitute in a round one match at theChickFight tournament in 2004, replacing the injured Miss Chevius, but lost in the first round toPrincess Sugey.[4][15] During 2005, LeRae was a mainstay in the EWF, facing wrestlers including Hurricane Havana, Kid Omega, andAmazing Kong. She continued competing for thepromotion throughout 2006, while also wrestling forAll-Pro Wrestling and Ground Zero Wrestling. 2007 saw LeRae branch out to theMidwestern United States, where she competed for Insanity Pro Wrestling andRing of Honor (ROH). LeRae had two matches for ROH in August 2007, losing toSara Del Rey andDaizee Haze indark matches on August 10 and 24, respectively.[1]
LeRae began wrestling for the Alternative Wrestling Show (AWS) promotion in December 2007. In May 2009, she participated in a tournament for the AWS Women's Championship; she defeated Kitana Vera andChristina Von Eerie en route to the final, where she defeated Erica D'Erico and Morgan in a three-way match for thevacant championship. She successfully defended the title against Carla Jade, Nikki, and Von Eerie until September 6, when she lost the championship to Von Eerie.[1]
LeRae debuted inPro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in 2006, when she put together ateam to face a teammanaged byJade Chung in aneight-man tag team match, with fellow future WWE superstarsSeth Rollins,Chris Hero, andKevin Owens where her team was victorious. In April 2007, she returned as thevalet ofHuman Tornado. Her first main storyline in the company began later that year in September; Tornado had been abusing LeRae, who stood up for herself and cost Tornado a match at the2007 Battle of Los Angeles.[1][17] After the match, Tornado began to attack LeRae, who was saved byChris Hero.[1] As a result, Hero and LeRae united to take on Tornado. In January 2008, Tornado,Claudio Castagnoli, andEddie Kingston defeated LeRae, Hero, andNecro Butcher in asix-person match, which meant that LeRae was forced to face Tornado in asingles match the following night. LeRae lost the match bydisqualification when Hero, who was banned from ringside, came to the ring to aid her.[18]LuFisto entered the feud in March when she teamed with Tornado in a loss to LeRae and Hero. The following night, LeRae defeated LuFisto in a singles match.[1] LeRae continued to be involved in the storyline between Hero and Tornado over the next few months.
LeRae spent the rest of the year inintergender competition, facing wrestlers includingAdam Cole,Johnny Gargano,Tommaso Ciampa,Roderick Strong,John Morrison,T. J. Perkins andChuck Taylor.[19][20] In 2009, LeRae entered a feud withChristina Von Eerie when LeRae defeated Von Eerie in the first women's match in PWG in more than a year.[21] Throughout early 2010, they teamed with a variety of male wrestlers to face each other, until LeRae defeated Von Eerie in a match in June to end the feud.[22][23][24] AtKurt RussellReunion 2 in January 2011, LeRae was on the winning side of an eight-person tag team match.[25] At PWG'sDDT4 event on April 3, 2011, LeRae won aJoey Ryan invitationalgauntlet match to advance to a number one contenders match for thePWG World Championship against Ryan later that same night, which she lost.[26] She wrestled only sporadically in PWG in 2012 and 2013, mainly in six and eight-person tag team matches, which included being on the winning side of an eight-person tag team match atKurt RussellReunion 3 in January 2012.[1][27]
LeRae began teaming with Joey Ryan in October 2013, with a loss toThe Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), and in January 2014 they participated in the 2014Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, but were eliminated in the first round byAdam Cole andKevin Steen.[28][29] On March 28, 2014, atMystery Vortex 2 LeRae unsuccessfully challenged Adam Cole for the PWG World Championship.[30] On July 27, LeRae and Ryan defeated The Young Bucks in aGuerrilla Warfare match to win thePWG World Tag Team Championship.[31] Known as theWorld's Cutest Tag Team, LeRae and Ryan made their first title defense on August 29 in athree-way match, defeating The Inner City Machine Guns (Rich Swann andRicochet) and the team ofChristopher Daniels andFrankie Kazarian.[32] The following night, LeRae entered the2014 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, where she defeated Rich Swann in the first round before losing toJohnny Gargano in the quarter-finals.[33][34] LeRae and Ryan finished out the year with successful title defenses against Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano in October, and Daniels and Kazarian in December.[35][36] LeRae and Ryan lost the championships to Monster Mafia (Ethan Page and Josh Alexander) on May 22, 2015, in the opening round of the2015 DDT4.[37] LeRae's final PWG match took place atMystery Vortex IV, where she made a surprise appearance in a losing effort againstTrent? on December 16, 2016.
LeRae debuted for Japanese promotionDDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT) on January 3, 2016, teaming with Joey Ryan to defeat Golden Storm Riders (Daisuke Sasaki and Suguru Miyatake).[38] On January 10, LeRae teamed with the Golden Storm Riders in a losing effort against Happy Motel (Antonio Honda,Konosuke Takeshita andTetsuya Endo).[39] The following day, LeRae teamed with Sasaki once again, this time defeating T2Hii (Kazuki Hirata andSanshiro Takagi).[40] LeRae once again toured with DDT in March 2016, unsuccessfully challenging Sasaki andShuji Ishikawa for theKO-D Tag Team Championship along with Joey Ryan on March 26[41] and defeatingMakoto Oishi andDanshoku Dino the following day.[42] LeRae returned to DDT in January 2017, losing to Sasaki on January 3,[43] but teaming with Kouki Iwasaki and Kazusada Higuchi to defeat T2Hii (Sanshiro Takagi, Kazuki Hirata andToru Owashi) on January 9.[44] During her time with DDT, LeRae also infamously won the company's Heavymetalweight Championship by pinning Ryan in adream sequence.[45]
LeRae has also competed for DDT's all-female sister promotionTokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling (TJPW), defeatingYuka Sakazaki in her debut on January 4, 2016[46] and losing to Mil Clown exactly one year later on January 4, 2017.[47]
LeRae first began appearing forFamily Wrestling Entertainment (FWE) in late 2013 as the mystery tag team partner ofJoey Ryan at theOpen Weight Grand Prix Final event. On October 3, LeRae and Ryan defeatedIvelisse Vélez andTommy Dreamer atRefuelled Night One following interference fromDrew Galloway. The next night atRefuelled Night Two, LeRae and Ryan defeated Christina Von Eerie andCarlito. Later the same night, LeRae issued a challenge to Ivelisse Vélez, and defeated her to win theFWE Women's Championship for the first time.[51] She successfully defended the title againstVeda Scott atNo Limits in February 2015.[52] The following month, LeRae and Ryan lost to Scott andPaul London in amixed tag team match, in which LeRae lost the FWE Women's title to Scott.[53]
LeRae competed atShimmer Women Athletes'Volume 62 taping in April 2014, losing toAthena.[56] She returned to Shimmer in October, losing toNikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray in singles matches onVolume 68 andVolume 70, respectively.[57][58]
On the May 3, 2017, episode ofNXT, LeRae made her televised in-ring debut forWWE, participating in a #1 contender's battle royal forAsuka'sNXT Women's Championship, but was unsuccessful after she was eliminated byBillie Kay.[62] In July, she was announced as one of the participants for theMae Young Classic tournament.[63] LeRae defeated Renee Michelle in the first round and Nicole Savoy in the second round, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals byShayna Baszler.[64][65][66]
On January 16, 2018, WWE announced that LeRae had signed a contract with the company.[6] She was inserted into her husbandJohnny Gargano'sfeud with then-NXT ChampionAndrade "Cien" Almas and his managerZelina Vega as an equaliser from Vega's interferences and attacks during their matches.[67][68][69] This led to a match between the two on the April 18 episode ofNXT, which LeRae won.[70] Two weeks later, now working as an active competitor, LeRae lost toBianca Belair, suffering her first singles loss.[71] In July, LeRae competed againstKairi Sane andNikki Cross in a triple-threat #1 contender's match, which Sane won.[72] After a few months of investigation, it was revealed that Gargano was the mystery attacker ofAleister Black, astoryline in which Nikki Cross was the witness.[73][74][75] This sparked a match between LeRae and Cross, which Cross won.[76] After a short hiatus, in what was her first appearance on the main roster, LeRae competed in her first women'sRoyal Rumble match at theRoyal Rumble on January 27, 2019, entering at # 17 but was eliminated byRuby Riott.[77] A few months later on April 7, LeRae made herWrestleMania debut as she competed in the secondWrestleMania Women's Battle Royal during theWrestleMania 35 pre-show, where she was eliminated by Asuka.[78][79] On the April 11 episode ofNXT, that was taped onNXT TakeOver: New York, LeRae returned toNXT, as she defeatedAliyah in her first match back.[80][81][82][83]
In the end of May, LeRae aligned withIo Shirai who was feuding withShayna Baszler and her alliesJessamyn Duke andMarina Shafir.[84][85][86][87][88] The alliance between the two ended after a month, after Shirai lost to Baszler for a second time, despite LeRae's attempts to help her during theirsteel cage match.[89] This led to a match between the two, that took place atNXT TakeOver: Toronto on August 10, where Shirai defeated LeRae.[90][91][92][93] In September, LeRae was inserted in a fatal four-way match to determine the #1 contender to Shayna Baszler's NXT Women's Championship, which she won after pinningMia Yim.[94][95][96][97] LeRae received her title match on the October 2 episode ofNXT, but lost.[98] On November 23, atNXT TakeOver: WarGames, she competed in the first-ever Women's WarGames match as part ofRhea Ripley's team, where LeRae and Ripley secured the victory against Baszler's team.[99][100] The next night atSurvivor Series, LeRae competed as part of Team NXT, in the first-ever 5-on-5-on-5 Women'sSurvivor Series elimination match, where she was one of the survivors alongside Rhea Ripley and Io Shirai.[101]
On the September 23 episode ofNXT, LeRae competed in a battle royal to determine the #1 contender for Io Shirai's NXT Women's Championship, which she won by eliminating Blackheart.[109] LeRae teamed up with Gargano the following week in a "Champions vs. Challengers" tag team match against Shirai andDamian Priest, where the former were victorious.[110] AtNXT TakeOver 31 on October 4, LeRae failed to win the title.[111] On the October 14 episode ofNXT, LeRae was successful in gaining yet another NXT Women's Championship match atNXT: Halloween Havoc with a consecutive win over Blackheart.[112][113][better source needed] Facing off against championIo Shirai in a renamedTables, Ladders and Chairs match on October 28, LeRae once again failed to win the title, despite having been assisted byIndi Hartwell (then presented as a masked figure), who was stopped by Halloween Havoc host Blackheart.[114][better source needed] An incensed LeRae felt that Blackheart cost her the Women's Championship, so she swore revenge by stealing and destroying Blackheart's toy tank in front of her, leaving Blackheart an emotional wreck and kicking off a feud between the two. On the November 18 episode ofNXT, it was announced that LeRae would lead one of the two women's teams (Team Candice) against that of Blackheart (Team Shotzi) in the second-ever women'sWarGames match atNXT TakeOver: WarGames on December 6,[115] where LeRae's team was victorious.[116][better source needed]
The following week onNXT, LeRae was featured in a segment alongside Gargano, Hartwell, andAustin Theory, in which they started referring to themselves asThe Way – astable consisting of the four.[117][118] On the January 22, 2021, episode of205 Live, LeRae and Hartwell defeated the team of Cora Jade andGigi Dolin in the quarterfinals of theWomen's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament, which marked the first time that a women's match has ever taken place in the brand's history.[119][120] On the May 4 episode ofNXT, she and Indi Hartwell defeatedEmber Moon andShotzi Blackheart in a Street Fight to win theNXT Women's Tag Team Championship.[121] On July 6, the pair woulddrop the titles to the newly-formed team ofIo Shirai andZoey Stark at theGreat American Bash after the returningTegan Nox attacked LeRae, costing her and Hartwell the championship.[122]The Way would officially disband later that year, following the announcement of LeRae's pregnancy, the expiration of Gargano's contract with WWE, and Theory's call-up to theRawbrand. LeRae remained under contract with WWE while onmaternity leave until May 6, 2022, when her contract expired after deciding not to renew it.[123]
Dawson married fellow professional wrestlerJohnny Gargano atDisneyland on September 16, 2016.[142] They have been featured in a short-documentary on their dynamics as a wrestling couple.[143] On August 12, 2021, the two announced that LeRae was pregnant with their first child.[144] Their son was born on February 17, 2022.[145]
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