One of the many people that recently lost their job with WWE is Levis Valenzuela, better known as No Way Jose. He spent his tenure in WWE with a comedy gimmick, dancing his way to ring with a conga-line of fans. It was a very fun gimmick which got over with fans in NXT, but did it limit the potential of No Way Jose?
The No Way Jose Name Limited Him
“The name itself, ha. I don’t know how the hell it happened, they were like ‘what do you think of No Way Jose,’ and I was like ‘no.’ I thought it was a catchphrase, and I was like ‘oh cool’… they saw something in film and somehow it came up… [Matt] Bloom was like “what if you want it as a name?”, and I was like ‘no way.’ Then a writer came up to me and was like ‘why?’ and I was like ‘it will pigeonhole me, there is a ceiling,’ all the real stuff in terms of business.”
It was impossible to really look at someone with the new No Way Jose as a legitimate threat, even when he showed potential in the ring during bouts with people like Austin Aries.
Was The Conga Line Overused?
Another thing he spoke on in this interview was the Conga-Line. In NXT, he only brought this out for big matches, which made it feel very special while only being a small piece of his gimmick. Once he came up to Monday Night RAW in 2018 however, it became the entire gimmick. You would rarely see Jose alone, as even backstage the conga-line was there. From the same interview, he stated the following.
“They wanted the conga line with me. In NXT, I only did the conga line for big events. I was like ‘alright, whatever. I’ll do the conga line,’ and then it stuck. I feel a certain way about the conga line. I love the conga line, I absolutely do, but I think that’s the line that maybe held me back a little bit,”
We never got to see a more serious side of Jose, and hopefully now that he is out of WWE we can see him really balance out his comedic nature with an actual threat in the ring. He put his all into the No Way Jose character, but it will be refreshing to see him realize his full potential.
Do you think No Way Jose should have had always had the conga line with him on the main roster? Would he have made it further without that being his entire character? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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