Candice LeRae, along with seven other women, put on a hell of a WarGames match just a few weeks ago. Stemming from that match was several speculations on injuries including a broken arm to LeRae and another injury to Dakota Kai. It was cleared up that Kai wasn’t injured and that she has been kept off television for reasons rumored to be her visa. She will be returning on tonight’s NXT to face Rhea Ripley.
As for LeRae, a post-show had Triple H stating that LeRae was being looked at for a possible broken arm. She has been on TV weekly since the WarGames match in segments but just not participating in matches. Speaking to PWInsider, she confirmed that her arm did not suffer a break and had the following to say:
“I feel great. All things considered, I think whatever little tiny bits of me that are still a bit sore, I’ll take it, because my arm – no break – it was a Christmas miracle. It was hard to believe, I was like this is definitely broken, we went to the ER, got x-rays…even our medical team looked at it and I want to say within 24 hours I was able to pretty much use my arm and my fingers all again , obviously tender, but…”
LeRae would then go on and explain how she felt in the moment when she knew something was wrong. She comments on how her ribs hurt first and then it went to the fact that she couldn’t use her arm. The concern was to get her checked out but she knew if she had left the cage then her team would lose the match (which they ended up winning).
“Yeah, well so, right after the impact, my ribs immediately hurt, and I’m a pretty stubborn person so I usually try to wait a second and go ‘Oh, I’m probably fine,’ and I told the referee that was in there with me, ‘I think the doctors need to check on me just in case,’ because I’ve never had a rib injury so that freaked me out, and I went to check my ribs myself to see how everything was, and I just completely couldn’t use my arm, and I was like ‘Oh no.’ They were trying to get me to leave the cage, and I was like, ‘I can’t leave the cage because we lose if I leave the cage, so just give me a second,’ and so by the time the match had ended, my ribs had started to feel better, and I could breathe normally and everything was fine, but there are so many things I can’t do with my arm right now. And like you said, you take things for granted, because my poor dad…like I always tell Johnny’s mom, ‘If anything’s wrong, you’ll hear from us, if something isn’t wrong is when you won’t, if everything’s good, you’re just not going to hear from us, so don’t worry,’ and I’m like trying to text her with one hand, I’m going ‘This is so frustrating,’ I need to tell people that I’m OK but it’s taking forever just to type one little letter, it’s crazy.”
LeRae continues, “It was a deep tissue…all the cartilage and stuff just got mushed, and I mean, for days after I went up to people like, ‘It’s not broken’ and medical staff were like that’s so crazy because everybody was convinced that it was broken,” she said. “I’m trying not to cry when they’re telling me it’s broken because I’m like, ‘I want kids, I don’t have time to take any time off right now, we gotta keep this show going,’ and there was still a part of me going, ‘Maybe it’s not broken,’ because my body has endured a lot of things in my almost 18 years of doing this, maybe it’s not broken, but it wasn’t (laughs).”
Since WarGames, LeRae has fully formed a stable known as “The Way.” It includes her husband, Johnny Gargano, Indi Hartwell, and Austin Theory. The group will usher in “A Very Gargano Christmas” tonight.
