Exclusive: Candice LeRae Warns Damage Ctrl Against Dakota Kai: 'She Will Sucker You In'

Candice LeRae has been a busy woman. Between welcoming her first child into the world in February with husband Johnny Gargano, making her surprise main roster debut in September, and becoming embroiled in a bitter feud with Damage Ctrl on Monday Night RAW over the past month, she’s barely had time to catch her breath.

For Candice, she's not solely focused on her own WWE career, as she is also intrinsically tied to her real-life husband Johnny Gargano, who has been busy in his own right on Monday nights, tearing it up in the ring with some of the best talent in the world. That husband-wife dynamic hasn’t deterred her from making a big impact since her RAW debut, as she scored a landmark pinfall victory over Bayley just a few weeks ago — a win that arguably put her high up on the list for future title contention. Of course, Damage Ctrl did not take this unexpected loss lightly:

Even though she paid the price due to that timely attack by IYO SKY and Dakota Kai, Candice still has an all-important win over one of the best women on the entire roster. So yeah, to say Candice LeRae has been busy these past few months is an understatement.

Luckily, USA Insider was able to carve out some time with Candice on Thursday (her day off) to talk about being a new mom, who she doesn’t trust at all in WWE, and what her ultimate goal is at this point in her career.

As is the tradition in wrestling journalism, if a new mother is being interviewed, then the first question must be about the baby — and Candice wasted no time in excitedly explaining how motherhood has been treating her over the past few months.

“I think we got very, very lucky. It’s been super easy. Johnny has been so hands-on and we were able to both take a little time off to just be parents because he is our first. We lucked out with our first. My pregnancy was really easy and really great — I loved being pregnant — but I feel like if I get pregnant again it will be the opposite!" she said with a laugh.

As the conversation moved to her current happenings on RAW, her recent pinfall win over Bayley was brought up. And Candice couldn’t help but drop a low-key piece of trivia onto the WWE Universe — a tidbit that would surely come in handy during any deep-dive wrestling bar trivia nights in towns across America.

Photo: WWE

“I’ve known Bayley for a very long time. I mean, she sat in the crowd watching me wrestle on the independent circuit — that’s how far back our history goes. And we actually had never been able to wrestle a match against each other, and for that night to be the night we got to do it and to get the win over her was wild to me,” she said.

Personally, we’re hoping that Candice keeps her undefeated record against Bayley for the rest of her career, but even the most optimistic members of the WWE Universe know that something like that is easier said than done.

Of course, you can’t mention Bayley without bringing up the rest of Damage Ctrl. After all, Candice is all-too-familiar with both IYO SKY and Dakota Kai from their days together in NXT, where the three women consistently found themselves competing against each other night after night.

“Part of the reason I couldn’t just walk away from my career after the baby was here was because I had never beaten IYO — so I would really love to beat her at some point. She’s the same, hasn’t changed a bit since NXT,” she confessed before changing her tune towards IYO’s teammate. “But Dakota, she could go either way. I don’t know how anybody could trust her, so to see her part of a group, I mean ... good on them, I guess? But she is dangerous. She will sucker you in. You’ll have all the faith in her and then she will flip that switch. Everybody saw what happened at the first-ever women's WarGames match in NXT, right?”

That’s something we weren’t expecting to hear from Candice: Words of warning to IYO SKY and Bayley that their fellow Damage Ctrl member may be more of a wild card than previously thought.

Speaking of IYO SKY, Halloween Havoc 2020 was discussed as well. Namely, the insane ending of their Tables, Ladders, and Scares Match, which saw IYO push Candice off the top of a ladder, causing the Poison Pixie to land violently knees-first through a ladder at ringside! Candice brought us back to that moment and acknowledged that she had a little luck on her side during that crazy fall.

“Yeah, when people were asking me afterward if my knees were OK, I didn’t know what to tell them because I didn’t even feel anything at all. It’s crazy, I didn’t feel anything at all in my lower half — not in the least — which was very peculiar. So yeah, let’s just say thank goodness for knee pads! I’ll never go without them for sure,” she said between laughs.

Well, there you go. Invest in knee pads, people. They’ll come in handy in case you ever find yourself falling 20 feet onto a ladder.

Invariably, the conversation turned to her future ambitions inside the squared circle. We were delighted to find out that yes, Candice has championship ambition, but her ultimate goal in WWE is something that is definitely family-focused.

“I feel like it’s cliche, because of course I want to be women’s champion and of course, I want to do everything I could possibly do in WWE and have all these great matches. But if I’m being honest, my ultimate goal for me right now? I would love to – at some point – have a mixed tag match at a WrestleMania with my husband Johnny Gargano,” she said. “For me and Johnny to tag — and I’ll be honest, for our son to see it as well — that’s my ultimate goal in WWE. So fingers crossed!"

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While Candice is not currently scheduled to compete at this weekend’s Crown Jewel event on Saturday, we have no doubt that she’ll take her well-deserved time off to recharge her batteries, get in some quality time with the family, and prepare herself with what will absolutely be another explosive episode of RAW on Monday!

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