No Way Jose (wrestler)

No Way José
Valenzuela in 2013
Birth name Levis Valenzuela Jr.
Born (1988-05-30) May 30, 1988
Durham, North Carolina, United States [1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s) Levis Valenzuela Jr.[2]
Manny Garcia[2]
No Way José[2]
Billed height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)[3]
Billed weight 245 lb (111 kg)[3]
Billed from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic[3]
Trained by Roy Wilkins
Trevor Lee[1]
Debut May 17, 2013[2]

Levis Valenzuela Jr.[4] (born May 30, 1988) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, performing on the Raw brand under the ring name No Way Jose.

Professional wrestling career

Independent circuit (2013–2015)

Valenzuela made his debut in CWF Mid-Atlantic as Manny Garcia on May 17, 2013. Manny lost his debut match against Ric Converse. On May 3, 2014, he defeated Mark James to win the CWF Mid-Atlantic Television Championship. On December 6, 2014, Manny lost the title to Chris Lea. On December 27, 2014, Manny re-captured the TV Championship. On March 21, 2015, Manny lost his title in a Fatal 4 Way where Chet Sterling came out as victorious.[5] In addition to CWF Mid-Atlantic, Garcia also appeared for promotions including Fire Star Pro Wrestling and OMEGA Championship Wrestling.[6]

WWE (2015–present)

NXT (2015–2018)

In April 2015, it was reported that Valenzuela signed a contract with WWE.[7] On April 10, 2015, Valenzuela was announced as one of 11 new signings to begin training at the WWE Performance Center.[8] 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.[9] Valenzuela then began to make frequent appearances at NXT house shows for the rest of 2015 and the early part of 2016.[5]

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 30th 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.[10][11] 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-present)

On the first episode of Raw after Wrestlemania 34, Jose made his main roster debut, defeating local talent John Skyler in a squash match.[12] He eventually began feuding with Baron Corbin. 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. He then started a feud with Mojo Rawley. They were supposed to have a match until Rawley had decided not to accept the challenge. The week after, Rawley attacked him. Since then, Jose has not competed on Raw, however, he regularly wrestles on Main Event.[13]

Other media

Valenzuela made his WWE video game debut as a playable character in WWE 2K18.[14]

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. 1 2 "WWE welcomes new NXT recruits: Introducing Levis Valenzuela Jr". Miami Herald. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "No Way Jose OWW". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "No Way Jose". www.wwe.com.
  4. ↑ "Levis Valenzuela Jr. proud to represent Dominican Republic in NXT". WWE.com. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Philip Kreikenbohm. "No Way Jose".
  6. ↑ "PWTorch.com - SHOW RESULTS 2/28 OMEGA in Durham, N.C.: Jeff Hardy new OMEGA champion, Mick Foley, Gallows vs. Dreamer, more".
  7. ↑ "WWE News: The newest NXT class includes an independent standout and ten others".
  8. ↑ "WWE Performance Center welcomes new class of recruits". www.wwe.com.
  9. ↑ "PWTorch.com - WWE NXT RESULTS 7/29: Blake & Murphy defend NXT Tag Titles, Kevin Owens "fined," Charlotte in action, Jesse Sorensen, more".
  10. ↑ "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 -".
  11. ↑ Caldwell, James. "8/20 "WWE NXT Takeover: Brooklyn" Results – Caldwell's Complete Live Report". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  12. ↑ Benigno, Anthony. "No Way Jose def. John Skyler". WWE.com. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ "Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2018". cagematch.net. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
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