Candice LeRae On Feeling Pressure To Hit the Title Picture In NXT Due to Her Age, Feeling More Confident Than She Was at NXT Takeover: Toronto

Candice LeRae recently weighed on the pressure she’s felt in NXT due to her age, her confidence growing in the past year and more in a new interview with Denise Salcedo’s Instinct Culture. You can check out the highlights and full video below:

On feeling more confident going into her NXT Takeover 31 match than she was against Io Shirai at NXT Takeover: Toronto: “Well, the thing is that last time, I felt like I wasn’t so confident. I was kind of like still trying to find myself in WWE and figure out how do I give this older indie version of Candice, but also give them something new? Give them this new WWE version of me, and I felt there was so much pressure going into that Takeover. Because that was actually my first Takeover, and it was just butterflies, crazy, I was not super confident. But now this time around I feel a lot more confident. I feel like I kinda found myself. And Io just brings out the absolute best in me, whether she’s trying to or not. She makes me push myself. And I mean, there’s things that happen in these matches. Anytime I am in the ring with Io, there’s stuff that happens that I didn’t even know I could do or I didn’t even know was possible. And I’m excited because there’s so much more at stake and I am more confident in me and this new me.”

On the slow climb up into the title picture and feeling pressure along the way: “Yes. Well, I feel like my age plays a factor a lot of the time. Like, it’s no secret, I’m not the youngest girl on the roster. [laughs] And, today I just turned 35. And I’m like, ‘Okay, at what point…’ Especially since all these girls are coming in, they are so much younger than me, that I’m like, at what point am I not going to be able to keep up with all these girls? And so as other girls are earning their opportunities and are having their opportunities, and I’m so happy for all of them. The girls that work at NXT are such amazing people, and they all work so hard. So, I’ve never had a moment where somebody else was given an opportunity and I am like, ‘Them really? Over me?’ It’s always been, ‘Man that girl, she deserves it’ But they’re all younger than me, so I am going, ‘As happy as I am for you and as much as you deserve this, I am not getting younger.’ Like, let’s be honest, I am not getting younger. Johnny and I want kids. So I think I put this pressure on myself, and it’s not anybody else doing it, it’s this weird pressure I put on myself. Because I’m like, I for some reason think that there’s like a timer that’s flipped and I’m watching the sand right now. And I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s no time!’”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Denise Salcedo’s Instinct Culture with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.