Johnny Gargano made his surprise WWE return on the August 22 edition of RAW in Toronto after being away from pro wrestling since December when his contract expired. Gargano recently appeared on WWE’s After The Bell podcast and revealed how he decided on returning to WWE when watching Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things.
Gargano recalled how he was watching Stranger Things during his free agency, when he heard Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” song from 1985, which received renewed interest in a major way due to producers using it in the fourth season of Stranger Things. Gargano recognized the song as Placebo did a cover for their 2003 album, and that version was used to promote the WrestleMania 26 main event in 2010, which saw WWE Hall of Famers The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels do battle in their infamous No DQ Streak vs. Career match, where The Heartbreak Kid was forced to retire.
Gargano said that moment played a role in his decision to return to WWE.
“This is when I knew what I wanted to do. I was watching Stranger Things and the song came on and the first thing that popped into my head was, ‘Wait a minute, that’s Shawn vs. The Undertaker’s song from WrestleMania.’ Placebo did a cover of it,” he said.
Gargano continued, “I watched the hype video for Shawn and Taker from Mania and I sat there in the kitchen, Candice was right there she can tell you this, I sat there in the kitchen and I watched this hype video as she’s doing baby stuff, and it just hit me watching this video, I was, like, this is what I want to do, this is where I want to be and this is what I want to do. This is why I got into this, to have videos like this about me but also to have these WrestleMania stories and matches and I haven’t had that yet. I haven’t had that WrestleMania moment, I haven’t had that WrestleMania match.”
Since returning, Gargano has had a few segments with former tag team partner Austin Theory, including his return segment which saw Gargano superkick Theory. The former leader of The Way will make his in-ring return on tonight’s RAW from Seattle, but no opponent has been announced as of this writing. This will be Gargano’s first match since WWE NXT WarGames on December 5, 2021.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more. Below is the full interview with Gargano:
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