Candice LeRae


Candice LeRae Dawson is an American professional wrestler., she is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Candice LeRae. She was the inaugural WWE Women's Speed Champion and a former NXT Women's Tag Team Champion.
Dawson began her professional wrestling career in 2002, working for the Empire Wrestling Federation promotion until 2006. Over the following years, she competed in various promotions on the independent circuit, including Combat Zone Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Shimmer Women Athletes, DDT Pro-Wrestling, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, where she is a one-time PWG World Tag Team Champion, making her the only female title holder in the promotion's history. Other titles she held include the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship and the FWE Women's Championship.
After competing at the inaugural Mae Young Classic in 2017, Dawson signed with WWE in early 2018 and debuted for the NXT brand, where she became involved in her husband Johnny Gargano's feuds before becoming a singles competitor. In 2020, Dawson joined Gargano, Indi Hartwell, and Austin Theory to form the villainous faction The Way, until it dissolved the following year. She left the company in May 2022 but returned in September that year.

Early life

Candice Dawson was born and raised in Riverside, 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 in culinary arts, and worked at Universal Studios Hollywood as a baker for a few years.
Numerous outlets list her as being born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. According to Dawson, this misconception is due to a decision made by an indie promoter early in her wrestling career. The promoter in question did not perceive Dawson as a viable heel, so in an attempt to generate heat, she was billed as a Canadian.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2002–2005)

LeRae spent the first two years of her career wrestling for the Empire Wrestling Federation and the International Wrestling Council. She appeared as a substitute in a round one match at the ChickFight tournament in 2004, replacing the injured Miss Chevius, but lost in the first round to Princess Sugey. During 2005, LeRae was a mainstay in the EWF, facing wrestlers including Hurricane Havana, Kid Omega, and Amazing Kong. She continued competing for the promotion throughout 2006, while also wrestling for All-Pro Wrestling and Ground Zero Wrestling. 2007 saw LeRae branch out to the Midwestern United States, where she competed for Insanity Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor. LeRae had two matches for ROH in August 2007, losing to Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze in dark matches on August 10 and 24, respectively.
LeRae began wrestling for the Alternative Wrestling Show promotion in December 2007. In May 2009, she participated in a tournament for the AWS Women's Championship; she defeated Kitana Vera and Christina Von Eerie en route to the final, where she defeated Erica D'Erico and Morgan in a three-way match for the vacant championship. She successfully defended the title against Carla Jade, Nikki, and Von Eerie until September 6, when she lost the championship to Von Eerie.
She also appeared for the National Wrestling Alliance, and unsuccessfully challenged Amazing Kong for the NWA Women's Championship in 2008.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (2006–2016)

LeRae debuted in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in 2006, when she put together a team to face a team managed by Jade Chung in an eight-man tag team match, with fellow future WWE superstars Seth Rollins, Chris Hero, and Kevin Owens where her team was victorious. In April 2007, she returned as the valet of Human 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 the 2007 Battle of Los Angeles. After the match, Tornado began to attack LeRae, who was saved by Chris Hero. As a result, Hero and LeRae united to take on Tornado. In January 2008, Tornado, Claudio Castagnoli, and Eddie Kingston defeated LeRae, Hero, and Necro Butcher in a six-person match, which meant that LeRae was forced to face Tornado in a singles match the following night. LeRae lost the match by disqualification when Hero, who was banned from ringside, came to the ring to aid her. 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. LeRae continued to be involved in the storyline between Hero and Tornado over the next few months.
LeRae spent the rest of the year in intergender competition, facing wrestlers including Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Roderick Strong, John Morrison, T. J. Perkins and Chuck Taylor. In 2009, LeRae entered a feud with Christina Von Eerie when LeRae defeated Von Eerie in the first women's match in PWG in more than a year. 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. At Kurt RussellReunion 2 in January 2011, LeRae was on the winning side of an eight-person tag team match. At PWG's DDT4 event on April 3, 2011, LeRae won a Joey Ryan invitational gauntlet match to advance to a number one contenders match for the PWG World Championship against Ryan later that same night, which she lost. 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 at Kurt RussellReunion 3 in January 2012.
LeRae began teaming with Joey Ryan in October 2013, with a loss to The Young Bucks, and in January 2014 they participated in the 2014 Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament, but were eliminated in the first round by Adam Cole and Kevin Steen. On March 28, 2014, at Mystery Vortex 2 LeRae unsuccessfully challenged Adam Cole for the PWG World Championship. On July 27, LeRae and Ryan defeated The Young Bucks in a Guerrilla Warfare match to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship. Known as the World's Cutest Tag Team, LeRae and Ryan made their first title defense on August 29 in a three-way match, defeating The Inner City Machine Guns and the team of Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian. The following night, LeRae entered the 2014 Battle of Los Angeles tournament, where she defeated Rich Swann in the first round before losing to Johnny Gargano in the quarter-finals. 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. LeRae and Ryan lost the championships to Monster Mafia on May 22, 2015, in the opening round of the 2015 DDT4. LeRae's final PWG match took place at Mystery Vortex IV, where she made a surprise appearance in a losing effort against Trent? on December 16, 2016.

DDT Pro-Wrestling (2016–2017)

LeRae debuted for Japanese promotion DDT Pro-Wrestling on January 3, 2016, teaming with Joey Ryan to defeat Golden Storm Riders. On January 10, LeRae teamed with the Golden Storm Riders in a losing effort against Happy Motel. The following day, LeRae teamed with Sasaki once again, this time defeating T2Hii. LeRae once again toured with DDT in March 2016, unsuccessfully challenging Sasaki and Shuji Ishikawa for the KO-D Tag Team Championship along with Joey Ryan on March 26 and defeating Makoto Oishi and Danshoku Dino the following day. LeRae returned to DDT in January 2017, losing to Sasaki on January 3, but teaming with Kouki Iwasaki and Kazusada Higuchi to defeat T2Hii on January 9. During her time with DDT, LeRae also infamously won the company's Heavymetalweight Championship by pinning Ryan in a dream sequence.
LeRae has also competed for DDT's all-female sister promotion Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, defeating Yuka Sakazaki in her debut on January 4, 2016 and losing to Mil Clown exactly one year later on January 4, 2017.

Other promotions (2011–2018)

In 2011, LeRae began competing for NWA Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, where she developed a feud with Buggy.
In September 2013, LeRae debuted for Combat Zone Wrestling, teaming with Greg Excellent in a loss to Cherry Bomb and Pepper Parks. She returned to CZW in February 2014, losing a singles match to Kimber Lee. At Proving Grounds on May 10, she unsuccessfully challenged Shane Strickland for the CZW Wired Television Championship.
LeRae first began appearing for Family Wrestling Entertainment in late 2013 as the mystery tag team partner of Joey Ryan at the Open Weight Grand Prix Final event. On October 3, LeRae and Ryan defeated Ivelisse Vélez and Tommy Dreamer at Refuelled Night One following interference from Drew Galloway. The next night at Refuelled Night Two, LeRae and Ryan defeated Christina Von Eerie and Carlito. Later the same night, LeRae issued a challenge to Ivelisse Vélez, and defeated her to win the FWE Women's Championship for the first time. She successfully defended the title against Veda Scott at No Limits in February 2015. The following month, LeRae and Ryan lost to Scott and Paul London in a mixed tag team match, in which LeRae lost the FWE Women's title to Scott.
LeRae appeared for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling at Turning Point on November 21, 2013, in a losing effort to TNA Knockouts Champion Gail Kim.
On May 10, 2014, LeRae and Joey Ryan competed in the 2014 Women Superstars Uncensored Queen and King of the Ring tournament, defeating the teams of Drew Gulak and Kimber Lee, and J. T. Dunn and Shelly Martinez to advance to the final, before being defeated by Matt Tremont and Mickie Knuckles. The following month, on June 7, 2014, she won Dream Wave Wrestling's Tag Team Championship with Ryan, but they lost the title the next day.
LeRae competed at Shimmer Women Athletes' Volume 62 taping in April 2014, losing to Athena. She returned to Shimmer in October, losing to Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray in singles matches on Volume 68 and Volume 70, respectively.
LeRae appeared for Full Impact Pro on June 22, 2014, teaming with Ivelisse Vélez to unsuccessfully challenge The Lucha Sisters for the Shine Tag Team Championship. She then made her debut for Shine Wrestling at Shine 20 on June 27, defeating Neveah.
LeRae made her first appearance on the December 14, 2016, episode of Ring of Honor Wrestling, in a losing effort against Deonna Purrazzo.