Although being in the ring is much better than lying backstage for months, Johnny Gargano and his wife Candice LeRay lost in the Money in the Bank qualifiers. last week’s WWE SmackDown.“To make matters worse, both Gargano and Lera got robbed in their triple threat bouts.
“SmackDown” is set for the qualifiers, with LeRae taking on the newest addition to the blue brand, Tatum Paxley, and former US Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton. In the weaker of the two, Lera was taken out by Paxley’s 450 and Stratton broke the pin with his prettiest moonsail ever. pin LeRae and defend one of the last “WWE NXT” call-ups.
The Poison Pixie’s night was not over, however, as she tried to interfere in the main event on her husband’s behalf. Gargano ended up running him off the ring apron, sending him crashing through the table below, but not breaking it. Gargano and opponent Cody Rhodes then went somewhat viral at X, for all the wrong reasons, as Rhodes ran to the ropes only to mildly shove “Johnny Wrestling”, who did fall into the table below. Gargano took the pin from Kevin Owens broke up with a powerbomb as Randy Orton interfered to prevent Rhodes from breaking up the pin.
Both Gargano and Lera were “rewarded” their shots at Money in the Bank by Undisputed WWE Champion Sami Zayn for helping him backstage. The best case scenario for the pair is to continue cutting backstage promos with Zayn, and worst case scenario, Gargano finds himself lying on top of things again, confused. Apparently there isn’t much for them to do now that they aren’t officially competing for their respective briefcases at Survivor Series. WarGames will come after that.
There’s a good chance Gargano gets back in the ring to mix it up, maybe with Owens, or maybe even alongside Zayn in a tag team match or two while Zayn still retains the gold. Prior to the MITB qualifier, LeRe had even fewer televised matches than her husband in 2026, while Gargano had just eight. The match was Lera’s second televised match, not counting the Royal Rumble of the year, and while it made sense to defend the new star in the match, getting the pin still had to sting for her, and she feels more directionless than her husband.
Posted by Daisy Ruth
