Candice LeRae celebrates after winning the women's Battle Royal (WWE)
Candice LeRae tried her best to defeat Io Shirai at NXT TakeOver 31 but failed to do so
The Poison Pixie, Candice LeRae, tried every trick in the book in her WWE NXT TakeOver 31 battle against Io Shirai.
This was for Shirai’s NXT Women’s title and the Pixie was close to winning her first NXT title a couple of times.
However, the Japanese star pulled out all the stops to keep her title. She not only had to deal with some cheating from LeRae, Johnny Gargano, LeRae’s husband also came out dressed as the referee at one time.
The real referee was injured after a move and LeRae also used the title belt on Shirai. However, the champion showed off her resilience and kept the gold.
LeRae is a huge Disney fan and before the match, she and Gargano paid homage to Star Wars. She even posted a photo of the pair and hoped that the force was with them, a Star Wars reference.
That wasn’t to be though and a broken LeRae tweeted a message from the movies too:
A Padawan is someone who is trying to become a Jedi and is still in the learning process. LeRae has been on NXT for a few years but she has never been able to win the title.
This was a great chance for the 35-year-old to break her duck on NXT, however, it was not to happen.
Her husband, Gargano, also failed in his attempts to win the North American title as he was beaten by Damian Priest.
It will be interesting to see what is next for LeRae but things will be tough for Shirai. Toni Storm confirmed she was returning to NXT soon while there was a surprise appearance from Ember Moon too.
Moon had been out of action due to an injury for a long time but it seems she will be the next one to challenge Shirai.
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