History Wrestling / CandiceLeRae

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Has had platinum-blonde/silver hair as well as a green ombre style. Recently dyed her hair a silver shade of pink as [[TechnicolorToxin The Poison Pixie]].

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Inverted - Hard as she tried, Jade Chung was never able to give LeRae much of a fight, losing all of their singles matches against each other, with a particularly humiliating and definitive loss against LeRae on NWA TV, with Chung unable to last longer than 5 minutes before getting knocked out and pinned.

* TheLancer: Became this to Rhea Ripley after she took charge of the female faces in the NXT women's locker room during the build-up to [=WarGames=] 2019. Candice was Rhea's first pick for her team, and her brightly-coloured outfitn and blonde hair contrasted with Rhea's dark brown hair and black leather ring gear. In the end they wound up winning the match together despite Dakota Kai's CavalryBetrayal.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Her current heel run with Wrestling/JohnnyGargano.

In 2017, Candice first appeared on [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]], participating in a battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women's Championship, held then by [[Wrestling/KanakoUrai Asuka]]. She has made sporadic appearances in NXT since then. She also wrestled in the ''WWE Mae Young Classic'', defeating Renee Michelle in the first round and Nicole Savoy in the second before losing to Shayna Baszler in the quarter finals. She was officially signed by WWE in January of 2018, and made her debut at ''Takeover: Philadelphia'' alongside real-life husband Wrestling/JohnnyGargano.

She had numerous feuds with the likes of Shayna Baezler and Io Shirai before [[FaceHeelTurn turning heel]] in April 2020. She's taken on the moniker "[[RedBaron the Poison Pixie]]" and is now the co-leader of [[PowerStable The Way]] (as in, "The Gargano Way").

Candice Gargano née Dawson (born September 29, 1985) is a Canadian professional wrestler who debuted in 2002 as Sweet Candy, before becoming better known by the ring name Candice [=LeRae=]. She is best known for her work on the American independent circuit, for initially for the Empire Wrestling Federation before breaking out into promotions such as Wrestling/{{Pro Wrestling Guerilla}} and Wrestling/{{CZW}}. She is a former PWG World Tag Team Champion, Fighting Spirit Pro Tag Team Champion and Dreamwave Tag Team Champion with Wrestling/JoeyRyan as The World's Cutest Tag Team.

* FinishingMove: A Gori Neckbreaker or a top rope swinging neck breaker.

* UseYourHead: Would sometimes employ headbutts as part of her arsenal, even when her opponents are hard headed women themselves, such as Nicole Savoy or Nikki Cross. She once did this against a man, starting a match with a headbutt to Peter Avalon's face, which knocked him down right away.

* {{Adorkable}}: Combining her love of Disney with her general badassery gives her this look. In real life, turned UpToEleven when she's drunk.

** Bar Wrestling attempted to put this to rest on their third show by booking The World's Cutest Tag Team against The Killer Baes.

* PartsUnknown: Often billed as being from "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride".

** She ''loves'' all things Disney, to the point that she bills herself from Mr Toad's Wild Ride.

* RedBaron: Since debuting in NXT, fans have nicknamed her "Candice Wrestling."

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Has had platinum-blonde/silver hair as well as a green ombre style.

** Her and Joey once wore matching ring gear inspired by Disney's Magic Kingdom.

* BigBadWannabe: In All Pro Wrestling and their spinoff, [=ChickFight=]. [=LeRae=] certainly proved to be a formidable wrestler over the years, but whenever she got to cocky there was always someone, be it Princesa Sugehit, Wrestling/MsChif or ODB, there to remind her where she stood in the grand scheme of things. Inverted when Kitana Vera and Jade Chung tried to give her trouble for a while in EWF and NWA, but after Candice won a hair vs match vs Vera, and defeated Chung rather easily not long afterwards, that was the end of that.

** Her most frequent ring rival is Carla Jade, who at one point went so far as to form an alliance with The Human Tornado against [=LeRae=] in EFW, which in turn led to [=LeRae=]'s first time teaming with Joey Ryan. The rivalry cooled down to more healthy levels after that, they even teamed up on a few NWA Pro shows, but it never really went away. Part of what fuels it is that even though Jade has defeated [=LeRae=] many times, she's [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut never been able to do so in a tournament or with a title belt on the line]], and [=LeRae=] is a lot more famous and widely booked than her.

* BigBadWannabe: In All Pro Wrestling and their spinoff, [=ChickFight=]. [=LeRae=] certainly proved to be a formidable wrestler over the years, but whenever she got to cocky there was always someone, be it Princesa Sugehit, Wrestling/MsChif or ODB, there to remind her where she stood in the grand scheme of things.
Inverted when Kitana Vera and Jade Chung tried to give her trouble for a while in EWF and NWA, but after Candice won a hair vs match vs Vera, and defeated Chung rather easily not long afterwards, that was the end of that.

* FlippingTheBird: Does this occasionally to particularly heelish opponents. She did this to Wrestling/JohnnyGargano a whole lot, even though he more often than not was uncharacteristically nice to her. Usually beating her intergender matches may have had something to do with that...

* HappilyMarried: to Wrestling/JohnnyGargano, both in character and RealLife.

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: During a tag match pitting herself and Wrestling/JoeyRyan against Wrestling/TheYoungBucks for the PWG Tag Team Championship she got superkicked with a shoe that had thumbtacks glued to the bottom of it. [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/622_SfrCjmQ/maxresdefault.jpg It was not a pretty sight.]]
* DavidVersusGoliath: Usually happens whenever she faces somebody who is visibly bigger in size that she is.

* FlippingTheBird: Does this occasionally to particularly heelish opponents. She did this to Wrestling/JohnnyGargano a whole lot even though he more often than not was uncharacteristically nice to her. Usually beating her intergender matches may have had something to do with that...

* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Candice [=LeRae=] [[LesCollaborateurs joined Christina Von Eerie's Team USA against [=LuFisto=]'s Team Canada]], in the Canadian version of SMASH, [[EvilIsPetty simply because Courtney Rush was on said team]]. But when Courtney Rush broke her collar bone and couldn't make it to the show, [=LeRae=] tried to back out of her match too only to be forced to continue representing the foreigners against country woman She Nay Nay. {{Subverted|Trope}} in the end when Von Eerie, and by extension all of Team USA, did a HeelFaceTurn.
* HumiliatingWager: The penultimate match of ''[[{{Crossover}} EWF/NWA Pro Damage Control 3]]'', was hair vs hair and she defeated Kitana Vera.

** This was her initial role in Wrestling/RingOfHonor, being one of the many women brought in to get pummeled by Wrestling/SaraDelRey and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze when they demanded more competition. Nine years later, when ROH rebranded Women Of Honor as a competitive division, [=LeRae=] returned to show how much better she had gotten, only to lose to comparative rookie Deonna Purazzo. After another loss to Wrestling/KellyKlein, Wrestling/VedaScott called [=LeRae=] overrated and boasted about having the second best WOH record after Klein. [=LeRae=] finally got on the winning track by defeating Scott. Early than that if considering the 2014 [[FanConvention Wrestlecon]] ROH was apart of, but starting with Scott was clearly the angle ROH was going for.

** [=LeRae=]'s Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} career looked to be going the same way as her ROH one. She lost her first three singles matches to Athena (NXT's Wrestling/EmberMoon), Nikki Storm (NXT's Nikki Cross) and Kay Lee Ray, while also competing in a four way dance won by Jenny Rose(who rarely has a good win/loss record). However, just like she ''eventually'' started winning in ROH, she started winning in SHIMMER, going so far as to become one of the top three contenders for the then new Heart Of SHIMMER Championship belt before being knocked off by Nicole Savoy. Even that was after [=LeRae=] defeated both Cherry Bomb and Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa on the the same night.

** Bar Wrestling attempted to put this to rest on their third show by booking The World's Cutest Tag Team against The Killer Baes
* OvershadowedByAwesome: She quickly became one of the Empire Wrestling Federation's premier women wrestlers, but was just unlucky enough to debut at the same time as Vixen, otherwise known as Amazing Kong. Luckily for little Candy, Kong's high demand elsewhere and EWF's not having it's own women's belt meant EWF only booked them a couple times, but after coming up short Candy took it upon herself to pursue Kong and her Wrestling/{{N|ationalWrestlingAlliance}}WA World Women's Championship belt to other promotions. To give you an idea of how that story went, Kong's reign was ended by [=MsChif=].

* PowerTrio: In Wrestling/{{Chikara}}, She, Wrestling/SoloDarling and Crazy Mary Dobson competed as the second incarnation of Team SHIMMER

* RescueRomance: In Pro Wrestling Guerrilla she stood up to her pimp, The Human Tornado, and started dating Wrestling/ChrisHero when he prevented The Human Tornado from smacking her up(as much as Tornado wanted to anyway).

** The World's Cutest with Joey Ryan, after defeating him during one of his inter gender invitationals. She also teams with Wrestling/JohnnyGargano quite a bit, but this took awhile longer, as [=LeRae=] was initially insanely hostile towards Gargano. Gargano's manners, which he rarely showed to the degree he did for [=LeRae=], eventually won her over.

** Her most frequent ring rival is Carla Jade, who at one point went so far as to form an alliance with The Human Tornado against [=LeRae=] in EFW, which in turn lead to [=LeRae=]'s first time teaming with Joey Ryan. The rivalry cooled down to more healthy levels after that, they even teamed up on a few NWA Pro shows, but it never really went away. Part of what fuels its is that even though Jade has defeated [=LeRae=] many times, she's [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut never been able to do so in a tournament or with a title belt on the line]], and [=LeRae=] is a lot more famous and widely booked than her.

** Wrestling/ChristinaVonEerie, particularly on the Alternative Wrestling Show, where [=LeRae=] was the first women's champion of the promotion and fiercely fought second champion Von Eerie for the belt. They also faced one another several times in NWA Pro and PWG, but unexpectedly tagged together in [=QPro=] before going back at it in Beyond, Family Wrestling Entertainment, and of course AWS. This also lead to quite a few matches with Von Eerie's tag team partners [=MsChif=] and Buggy Nova, but not too many tag team matches since [=LeRae=]'s main partners are men.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Initially averted, as valets were a noticeable part of early Pro Wrestling Guerilla, [=LeRae=] even made her debut not as a valet but a managerial rival to Jade Chung and then was forced into a wrestling role that eventually saw her defeat [=LuFisto=], engage in a long running feud with Wrestling/ChristinaVonEerie and even score a win over Wrestling/DaffneyUnger. [=LeRae=] was the only one who stuck around after PWG's ownership changed, however.

* YokoOhNo: In Universe, Chris Hero saving Candice [=LeRae=] from The Human Tornado was all well and good, but when they started dating that caused problems, as Wrestling/ClaudioCastagnoli didn't like her and went so far as to join [=BLKOut=], a multi promotional PowerStable The Human Tornado was a member of, just to get rid of her. And when [=LeRae=] was gone, Hero and Castagnoli were back on good terms.

* BloodIsTheNewBlack: During a tag match pitting herself and Wrestling/JoeyRyan against the Wrestling/TheYoungBucks for the PWG Tag Team Championship she got superkicked with a shoe that had thumbtacks glued to the bottom of it. [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/622_SfrCjmQ/maxresdefault.jpg It was not a pretty sight.]]

* ActionGirl: Having clawed her way up to stardom in wrestling despite a ''shitload'' of sexism, having established herself as ''the'' female wrestler in PWG (see previous comment re: sexism- Super Dragon won't employ other women) despite fierce opposition, and having taken a kick to the face where the foot in question was wearing a tennis shoe with thumbtacks glued to the sole- yeah, it's safe to say that she qualifies. And that's just the start of it.

* ArchEnemy
** An abusive pimp she used to work for known as The Human Tornado. [=LeRae=], being [=LeRae=], didn't just take it and went so far as to fight him on more than one occasion, but she usually has a male proxy face him instead when they feud.
** A one sided example in Cherry Bomb, who hates [=LeRae=] for breaking her collar bone. It becomes a hate triangle with [[Wrestling/{{Rosemary}} Courtney Rush]], who hates Cherry Bomb the way Cherry Bomb hates [=LeRae=]. [=LeRae=] used to hate Rush in that manner, [[EvilIsPetty for reasons]], but let go of her grudge much more quickly than the other two.

* BigBadWannaBe: In All Pro Wrestling and their spinoff, [=ChickFight=]. [=LeRae=] certainly proved to be a formidable wrestler over the years, but whenever she got to cocky there was always someone, be it Princesa Sugehit, Wrestling/MsChif or ODB, there to remind her where she stood in the grand scheme of things.

* GroinAttack: One of her signature maneuvers, the Balls-Plex. A German suplex, only instead of grabbing the waist...
* HappilyMarried: to Wrestling/JohnnyGargano.

* {{Jobber}}: This was her initial role in Wrestling/RingOfHonor, being one of the many women brought in to get pummeled by Wrestling/SaraDelRey and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze when they demanded more competition. Nine years later, when ROH rebranded Women Of Honor as a competitive division, [=LeRae=] returned to show how much better she had gotten, only to lose to comparative rookie Deonna Purazzo. After another loss to Wrestling/KellyKlein, Wrestling/VedaScott called [=LeRae=] overrated and boasted about having the second best WOH record after Klein. [=LeRae=] finally got on the winning track by defeating Scott. Early than that if considering the 2014 [[FanConvention Wrestlecon]] ROH was apart of, but starting with Scott was clearly the angle ROH was going for.

* {{Jobber}}: This was her initial role in Wrestling/RingOfHonor, being one of the many women brought in to get pummeled by Wrestling/SaraDelRey and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze when they demanded more competition. Nine years later, when ROH rebranded Women Of Honor as a competitive division, [=LeRae=] returned to show how much better she had gotten, only to lose to comparative rookie Deonna Purazzo. After another loss to Wrestling/KellyKlein, Wrestling/VedaScott called [=LeRae=] overrated and boasted about having the second best WOH record after Klein. [=LeRae=] finally got on the winning track by defeating Scott. Early than that if consider the 2014 Wrestlecon ROH was apart of, but starting with Scott was clearly the angle ROH was going for.

** [=LeRae=]'s Wrestling/{{SHIMMER}} career looked to be going the same way as her ROH one. She lost her first three singles matches to Athena (NXT's Ember Moon), Nikki Storm (NXT's Nikki Cross) and Kay Lee Ray, while also competing in a four way dance won by Jenny Rose(who rarely has a good win/loss record). However, just like she ''eventually'' started winning in ROH, she started winning in SHIMMER, going so far as to become one of the top three contenders for the then new Heart Of SHIMMER Championship belt before being knocked off by Nicole Savoy. Even that was after [=LeRae=] defeated both Cherry Bomb and Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa on the the same night.

** As a manager and valet, Jade Chung. [=LeRae=] is also one of the few rivals Chung wrestled on a semi regular basis, during 2007, winning most of their matches! By the next year [=LeRae=] had left Chung behind as a wrestler, if not necessarily as a manager.

* {{Jobber}}: This was her initial role in Wrestling/RingOfHonor, being one of the many women brought in to get pummeled by Wrestling/SaraDelRey and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze when they demanded more competition. Nine years later, when ROH rebranded Women Of Honor as a competitive division, [=LeRae=] returned to show how much better she had gotten, only to lose to comparative rookie Deonna Purazzo. After another loss to Kelly Klein, Wrestling/VedaScott called [=LeRae=] overrated and boasted about having the second best WOH record after Klein. [=LeRae=] finally got on the winning track by defeating Scott. Early than that if consider the 2014 Wrestlecon ROH was apart of, but starting with Scott was clearly the angle ROH was going for.

* {{Jobber}}: This was her initial role in Wrestling/RingOfHonor, being one of the many women brought in to get pummeled by Wrestling/SaraDelRey and Wrestling/DaizeeHaze when they demanded more competition. Nine years later, when ROH rebranded Women Of Honor as a competitive division, [=LeRae=] returned to show how much better she had gotten, only to lose to comparative rookie Deonna Purazzo. After another loss to Kelly Klein, Veda Scott called [=LeRae=] overrated and boasted about having the second best WOH record after Klein. [=LeRae=] finally got on the winning track by defeating Scott. Early than that if consider the 2014 Wrestlecon ROH was apart of, but starting with Scott was clearly the angle ROH was going for.