.jpg) Jose in 2018 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Levis Valenzuela Jr. (1988-05-30)May 30, 1988 (age 37) Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Children | 1 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Levy Valenz[1] Levis Valenzuela Levis Valenzuela Jr.[2] Manny Garcia[2] No Way No Way Jose[2] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[3] |
| Billed weight | 245 lb (111 kg)[3] |
| Billed from | Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic[3] |
| Trained by | Roy Wilkins Tony Racanelli Cameron Grimes[4] |
| Debut | May 17, 2013[2] |
Levis Valenzuela Jr.[5] (born May 30, 1988) is an Americanprofessional wrestler best known for his time withWWE under thering nameNo Way Jose. Valenzuela debuted in May 2013, wrestling under the nameManny Garcia for North Carolina promotionCWF Mid-Atlantic, where he became a two-timeCWF Mid-Atlantic Television Champion. He signed with WWE in 2015, wrestling in its developmental territoryNXT before being called up to the main roster in April 2018. After being released by WWE in April 2020, he began to work on the independent circuit, as well withImpact Wrestling.
Valenzuela made his debut inCWF Mid-Atlantic asManny Garcia on May 17, 2013. Manny lost his debut match againstRic Converse.[6] On May 3, 2014, he defeated Mark James to win theCWF Mid-Atlantic Television Championship.[7] On December 6, 2014, Manny lost the title to Chris Lea.[7] On December 27, 2014, Manny re-captured the TV Championship.[8] On March 21, 2015, Manny lost his title in a Fatal 4 Way where Chet Sterling came out as victorious.[9] In addition to CWF Mid-Atlantic, Garcia also appeared for promotions including Fire Star Pro Wrestling andOMEGA Championship Wrestling.[10]
In April 2015, it was reported that Valenzuela signed a contract with WWE.[11] On April 10, 2015, Valenzuela was announced as one of 11 new signings to begin training at theWWE Performance Center.[12] Wrestling under his real name, Valenzuela made his first appearance onNXT as anenhancement talent, teaming withElias Samson in a tag team match, losing toAmerican Alpha.[13] Valenzuela then began to make frequent appearances atNXThouse shows for the rest of 2015 and the early part of 2016.[9]
In April 2016, vignettes began to air hyping the debut of Valenzuela, now repackaged asNo Way Jose. He made his official debut on the April 20, 2016 episode ofNXT, defeatingAlexander Wolfe. On the June 22 episode ofNXT, Jose interruptedAustin Aries during his interview backstage and told him to be positive following Aries' loss atNXT TakeOver: The End. Later that night, Jose defeated Josh Woods. Aries then came out and ended up dancing with Jose, but he then attacked Jose. After weeks of missingNXT, Jose attacked Aries after Aries' match on the July 20 episode ofNXT. Jose rushed Aries outside into the locker room. Aries defeated Jose atNXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II.
Then, Jose entered a feud withEric Young and theSAnitY faction by calling them out after they interrupted a match betweenRich Swann andKona Reeves. This led to an assault on Jose. On the November 30 episode ofNXT, Jose faced Eric Young in a losing effort. On the December 7 episode ofNXT, Jose and Rich Swann faced the team of Eric Young andAlexander Wolfe again in a losing effort.[14][15] Jose continued to feud with SAnitY, forming an alliance withTye Dillinger andRoderick Strong to battle the faction in early 2017. He was scheduled to team with Dillinger, Strong andRuby Riot against SAnitY atNXT TakeOver: Orlando but he was attacked by Sanity before the show. He was replaced byKassius Ohno in the match, which was eventually won by SAnitY.
On the April 9 episode ofRaw, the first afterWrestleMania 34, Jose made his main roster debut, defeatinglocal talent John Skyler in asquash match.[16] Jose picked up anupset victory againstBaron Corbin on the April 30 episode ofRaw, after interference fromTitus O'Neil.[17] This would lead to Jose teaming with O'Neil andApollo Crews to face Corbin andThe Revival on the May 7 episode ofRaw in a losing effort.[18] He failed to qualify for theMen's Money in the Bank ladder match in a triple threat match against Corbin and the eventual winnerBobby Roode on the May 14 episode ofRaw.[19] On the May 21 episode ofRaw, Jose was defeated by Corbin to end their feud.[20] Jose then started a feud withMojo Rawley. After losing to Rawley on the June 18 episode ofRaw,[21] Jose would ask for a rematch, only to be constantly denied one by Rawley for the next three weeks. Jose finally got his rematch on the July 9 episode ofRaw, however he would once again be defeated by Rawley, thus ending the feud.[22] Afterwards, Jose did not compete onRaw for four months, instead regularly appearing onMain Event. Jose returned toRaw on November 26, where he was defeated byJinder Mahal.[23]
Jose made hisRoyal Rumble debut at thenamesake event on January 27, 2019, only to be eliminated in two seconds bySamoa Joe.[24] Following this, Jose would be used sparingly on Raw until the April 13, 2020 episode of Raw where Jose was quickly defeated byBobby Lashley in a squash match. This would be his final WWE appearance. On April 15, 2020, Jose was released from his contract along with various other superstars and backstage talent as part of budget cuts stemming from theCOVID-19 pandemic.[25]
Following his release from WWE, Valenzuela began taking bookings under the ring nameLevy Valenz. On July 17, 2021, atSlammiversary, he made his debut forImpact Wrestling under the ring nameNo Way, being revealed asFallah Bahh's mystery partner in thefour-waytag team match for theImpact World Tag Team Championship, however, the match would ultimately be won byThe Good Brothers (Doc Gallows andKarl Anderson).[26] He stayed with Impact Wrestling until November 2021.[27]
Valenzuela made his WWE video game debut as a playable character inWWE 2K18,[28] and subsequently appears inWWE 2K19[29] and lastlyWWE 2K20.
Valenzuela has a son.[30]
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