Candice LeRae shocked the WWE Universe when she returned to the company last month. Prior to her return, LeRae’s announced her pregnancy, prompting an extended absence from the company. In May, her contract with WWE expired, and she was then reassigned to the alumni section of WWE.com.
In August, her real-life husband Johnny Gargano returned to WWE in an appearance on Monday Night RAW. A month later, Candice LeRae herself made a surprise appearance, facing Nikki A.S.H. in a match on RAW, simultaneously making her official main roster debut. In a recent chat with MuscleManMalcolm, “The Poison Pixie” opened up about when plans formulated for their returns to the company.
“So Johnny and I both knew for sure about, I want to say a week before he debuted,” she revealed. “So I knew for a while. Keeping a secret was very very difficult. In this day and age there’s so much social media and so many things leaking and trying to keep a secret was really difficult. I think him being a secret was a little harder, me being a secret was easy but hard because I was going with him to train, I was his training buddy but we were just like ‘oh yeah I’m just training with him.’”
“I think people just weren’t expecting me to be ready to come back so soon, not even Triple H was ready. We said ‘hey, what do you think?’. He (Triple H) goes ‘oh okay’. Everybody’s been surprised, so I’m glad that in this day and age, we were able to be both genuine surprises. That’s awesome.”
Upon her return, LeRae does have some goals in mind, including two potential mixed tag team matches at WrestleMania.
“I can tell you that my ultimate goal I would love, love, love to have a mixed tag match at WrestleMania,” she revealed, “with me and Johnny against, verses–I mean it could be anybody–but I’m just going to say there’s Edge and Beth, [that] would be pretty awesome. I keep putting this out there because I’m hoping. Then Seth [Rollins] and Becky [Lynch] would be really awesome too.”
Candice LeRae Wants The Way To Come Back
The former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion also wants to see the return of her former stable, The Way. The group formed in 2020 with LeRae, Gargano, Austin Theory and Indi Hartwell as core members. Dexter Lumis would serve as an extension of the faction, as Hartwell’s on-screen love interest, before the two later tied the knot on NXT television.
“I would like The Way to come back!” LeRae admitted. “We have Dexter now so we can [maybe re-form]. Theory can figure his life out and then we’ll get there, maybe. I hope.… what is he doing? He went away to college, has a job now and he’s better than all of us now.”
As previously mentioned, LeRae returned to in-ring competition for the first time since announcing her pregnancy and giving birth earlier this year. She continued on to explain what life is like now being on the road as a mother.
“It’s different leaving [home now],” she said. “I’m a homebody, I really like being home but obviously my job entails travel. We (herself and Gargano) wanted to make sure that we cherished every moment that we could with him (their son) once he was born, and that’s why we both just like ‘we’re taking time off’ and left it at that.”
“We’re hoping eventually to be able to bring him with us but we want to be able to kind of get ourselves used to it before we bring him. It is definitely different. There’s a lot more to think about like packing before I leave and trying to make sure he’s all situated. It’s a longer process to get ready but it’s worth it.”
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit MuscleManMalcolm and give a H/T to SEScoops for the transcription.
