Dominican-American wrestler
Levis Valenzuela Jr.
[5]
(born May 30, 1988) is an American
professional wrestler
best known for his time with
WWE
under the
ring name
No Way Jose
. Valenzuela debuted in May 2013, wrestling under the name
Manny Garcia
for North Carolina promotion
CWF Mid-Atlantic
, where he became a two-time
CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Champion
. He signed with WWE in 2015, wrestling in its developmental territory
NXT
before being called up to the main roster in April 2018. After being released by WWE in April 2020, he began to work on the independent circuit, as well with
Impact Wrestling
.
Professional wrestling career
[
edit
]
Independent circuit (2013?2015)
[
edit
]
Garcia in 2014
Valenzuela made his debut in
CWF Mid-Atlantic
as
Manny Garcia
on May 17, 2013. Manny lost his debut match against
Ric Converse
.
[6]
On May 3, 2014, he defeated Mark James to win the
CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Championship
.
[7]
On December 6, 2014, Manny lost the title to Chris Lea.
[7]
On December 27, 2014, Manny re-captured the TV Championship.
[8]
On March 21, 2015, Manny lost his title in a Fatal 4 Way where Chet Sterling came out as victorious.
[9]
In addition to CWF Mid-Atlantic, Garcia also appeared for promotions including Fire Star Pro Wrestling and
OMEGA Championship Wrestling
.
[10]
NXT (2015?2018)
[
edit
]
In April 2015, it was reported that Valenzuela signed a contract with WWE.
[11]
On April 10, 2015, Valenzuela was announced as one of 11 new signings to begin training at the
WWE Performance Center
.
[12]
Wrestling under his real name, Valenzuela made his first appearance on
NXT
as an
enhancement talent
, teaming with
Elias Samson
in a tag team match, losing to
American Alpha
.
[13]
Valenzuela then began to make frequent appearances at
NXT
house shows
for the rest of 2015 and the early part of 2016.
[9]
In April 2016, vignettes began to air hyping the debut of Valenzuela, now repackaged as
No Way Jose
. He made his official debut on the April 20, 2016 episode of
NXT
, defeating
Alexander Wolfe
. On the June 22 episode of
NXT
, Jose interrupted
Austin Aries
during his interview backstage and told him to be positive following Aries' loss at
NXT TakeOver: The End
. Later that night, Jose defeated Josh Woods. Aries then came out and ended up dancing with Jose, but he then attacked Jose. After weeks of missing
NXT
, Jose attacked Aries after Aries' match on the July 20 episode of
NXT
. Jose rushed Aries outside into the locker room. Aries defeated Jose at
NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II
.
Then, Jose entered a feud with
Eric Young
and the
SAnitY
faction by calling them out after they interrupted a match between
Rich Swann
and
Kona Reeves
. This led to an assault on Jose. On the November 30 episode of
NXT
, Jose faced Eric Young in a losing effort. On the December 7 episode of
NXT
, Jose and Rich Swann faced the team of Eric Young and
Alexander Wolfe
again in a losing effort.
[14]
[15]
Jose continued to feud with SAnitY, forming an alliance with
Tye Dillinger
and
Roderick Strong
to battle the faction in early 2017. He was scheduled to team with Dillinger, Strong and
Ruby Riot
against SAnitY at
NXT TakeOver: Orlando
but he was attacked by Sanity before the show. He was replaced by
Kassius Ohno
in the match, which was eventually won by SAnitY.
Raw (2018?2020)
[
edit
]
On the April 9 episode of
Raw
, the first after
WrestleMania 34
, Jose made his main roster debut, defeating
local talent
John Skyler in a
squash match
.
[16]
Jose picked up an
upset victory
against
Baron Corbin
on the April 30 episode of
Raw
, after interference from
Titus O'Neil
.
[17]
This would lead to Jose teaming with O'Neil and
Apollo Crews
to face Corbin and
The Revival
on the May 7 episode of
Raw
in a losing effort.
[18]
He failed to qualify for the
Men's Money in the Bank ladder match
in a triple threat match against Corbin and the eventual winner
Bobby Roode
on the May 14 episode of
Raw
.
[19]
On the May 21 episode of
Raw
, Jose was defeated by Corbin to end their feud.
[20]
Jose then started a feud with
Mojo Rawley
. After losing to Rawley on the June 18 episode of
Raw
,
[21]
Jose would ask for a rematch, only to be constantly denied one by Rawley for the next three weeks. Jose finally got his rematch on the July 9 episode of
Raw
, however he would once again be defeated by Rawley, thus ending the feud.
[22]
Afterwards, Jose did not compete on
Raw
for four months, instead regularly appearing on
Main Event
. Jose returned to
Raw
on November 26, where he was defeated by
Jinder Mahal
.
[23]
Jose made his
Royal Rumble
debut at the
namesake event
on January 27, 2019, only to be eliminated in two seconds by
Samoa Joe
.
[24]
Following this, Jose would be used sparingly on Raw until the April 13, 2020 episode of Raw where Jose was quickly defeated by
Bobby Lashley
in a squash match. This would be his final WWE appearance. On April 15, 2020, Jose was released from his contract along with various other superstars and backstage talent as part of budget cuts stemming from the
COVID-19 pandemic
.
[25]
Impact Wrestling (2020?2021)
[
edit
]
Following his release from WWE, Valenzuela began taking bookings under the ring name
Levy Valenz
. On July 17, 2021, at
Slammiversary
, he made his debut for
Impact Wrestling
under the ring name
No Way
, being revealed as
Fallah Bahh
's mystery partner in the
four-way
tag team match
for the
Impact World Tag Team Championship
, however, the match would ultimately be won by
The Good Brothers
(
Doc Gallows
and
Karl Anderson
).
[26]
He stayed with Impact Wrestling until November 2021.
[27]
Other media
[
edit
]
Valenzuela made his WWE video game debut as a playable character in
WWE 2K18
,
[28]
and subsequently appears in
WWE 2K19
[29]
and lastly
WWE 2K20
.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Valenzuela has a son.
[30]
Championships and accomplishments
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
@LevyValenz (July 18, 2020).
"Time for a change #ControlYourNarrative#FreeLevyValenz#TheNarrative"
(
Tweet
) – via
Twitter
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"No Way Jose OWW"
. Online World of Wrestling
. Retrieved
May 9,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
"No Way Jose"
.
www.wwe.com
.
- ^
"WWE welcomes new NXT recruits: Introducing Levis Valenzuela Jr"
.
Miami Herald
. Retrieved
May 9,
2016
.
- ^
"Levis Valenzuela Jr. proud to represent Dominican Republic in NXT"
. WWE.com
. Retrieved
May 9,
2016
.
- ^
"Manny Garcia Joins NXT"
,
cwf.com
, retrieved
January 1,
2019
- ^
a
b
c
Tanabe, Hisaharu (2011).
"CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Title"
.
Solie's Title Histories
. Solie.org
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
"12/27 CWF Mid-Atlantic Battlecade XV Results"
. December 28, 2014.
- ^
a
b
c
Philip Kreikenbohm.
"No Way Jose"
.
- ^
"PWTorch.com - SHOW RESULTS 2/28 OMEGA in Durham, N.C.: Jeff Hardy new OMEGA champion, Mick Foley, Gallows vs. Dreamer, more"
.
- ^
"WWE News: The newest NXT class includes an independent standout and ten others"
.
- ^
"WWE Performance Center welcomes new class of recruits"
.
www.wwe.com
.
- ^
"PWTorch.com - WWE NXT RESULTS 7/29: Blake & Murphy defend NXT Tag Titles, Kevin Owens "fined," Charlotte in action, Jesse Sorensen, more"
.
- ^
"4/20 WWE NXT TV Results - James's Full Report on Joe vs. Crews main event, Enzo & Cass face NXT tag champs, Nia Jax, No Way Jose debuts -"
. April 23, 2016.
- ^
Caldwell, James.
"8/20 "WWE NXT Takeover: Brooklyn" Results ? Caldwell's Complete Live Report"
.
Pro Wrestling Torch
. Retrieved
August 20,
2016
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony.
"No Way Jose def. John Skyler"
.
WWE.com
. Retrieved
April 15,
2018
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony (April 30, 2018).
"No Way Jose def. Baron Corbin"
.
WWE
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Tedesco, Mike (May 7, 2018).
"WWE RAW Results ? 5/7/18 (Two Triple Threat Money in the Bank Qualifying Matches)"
.
WrestleView
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Messano, Tommy (May 14, 2018).
"Bobby Roode wins his way into the men's Money in the Bank ladder match"
.
SB Nation
. Retrieved
July 16,
2018
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony (May 21, 2018).
"Baron Corbin def. No Way Jose"
.
WWE
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony (June 18, 2018).
"Mojo Rawley def. No Way Jose"
.
WWE
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Heydorn, Zack (July 9, 2018).
"HEYDORN'S WWE RAW REPORT 7/9: Alt Perspective coverage of the live show including the final hype for Extreme Rules, Rollins vs. McIntyre, and more"
.
Pro Wrestling Torch
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony (November 26, 2018).
"Jinder Mahal def. No Way Jose"
.
WWE
. Retrieved
January 1,
2019
.
- ^
Benigno, Anthony.
"Seth Rollins won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match"
. WWE
. Retrieved
January 27,
2019
.
- ^
"Rusev, Kurt Angle and other Superstars released"
.
WWE
. April 15, 2020.
- ^
Powell, Jason (July 17, 2021).
"7/17 Impact Wrestling Slammiversary results: Powell's live review of Kenny Omega vs. Sami Callihan in a No DQ match for the Impact World Championship, Deonna Purrazzo defends the Knockouts Championship against a mystery challenger, Ultimate X for the X Division Title, Moose vs. Chris Sabin"
.
Pro Wrestling Dot Net
. Retrieved
July 17,
2021
.
- ^
Johnson, Mike (November 2, 2021).
"UPDATE: FIVE NAMES REMOVED FROM IMPACT ROSTER PAGE"
. PWInsider
. Retrieved
November 3,
2021
.
- ^
WWE Staff (January 16, 2018).
"WWE 2K18 roster: Meet the Superstars joining the list of playable characters"
.
WWE.com
.
Stamford, Connecticut
:
WWE
. Retrieved
May 1,
2018
.
- ^
Fowler, Matt (August 30, 2018).
"WWE 2K19 Roster Reveal: 75 Playable Superstars Announced"
.
IGN
.
- ^
@LevyValenz (September 21, 2021).
"I got to welcome my son into the world! So damn happy! I'M A DAD!! ????"
(
Tweet
) – via
Twitter
.
- ^
"Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018"
.
cagematch.net
. Retrieved
September 19,
2018
.
External links
[
edit
]