Pro-wrestling star and former NXT triple-crown champion Johnny Gargano recently joined The Bob Culture podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, including why he made his heel run with The Way a little sillier than originally planned, and what advice he would give to new Performance Center recruits. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he wanted his heel run to be sillier because of the seriousness of the pandemic:
“I think things turned out the way they were supposed to. That was never going to be the way that character was supposed to be. It was going to be a lot more serious, but I just kind of felt like with everything going on with the pandemic and with COVID and things like that, I felt like NXT just needed a little bit of levity, a little bit of funniness, silliness, goofiness, and I was happy that I was able to provide that.”
Looks back on his feud with Tommaso Ciampa:
“We were extremely lucky. Timing worked out to where Tommaso was able to leave and get surgery … people had to wait for the match as opposed to it just being immediate. It worked out so fantastic, because then I ended up having a match with Andrade that propelled me to a new height. And then Tommaso came back right after that, so I was already riding high from that match. And it’s so funny that like, if Tommaso doesn’t go get surgery after that match, the Andrade match never happens. Also, if Drew [McIntyre] doesn’t get hurt during the match with Andrade, where he lost the title to Andrade, me vs. Andrade doesn’t happen either … There is a different timeline somewhere where none of this happens.”
What advice he would give to Performance Center recruits:
“Never lose that wrestling fan inside of you. That is what’s going to help you treat people how they should be treated, but also wrestle how you should wrestle … I always kind of try to think, ‘What can I do that would make little Johnny Gargano lose his mind?’ … Wrestling does suck at times, it gets hard, it gets rough, but as long as you remember what made you do this, you will never go wrong. Treat people kindly, be a good person, work incredibly hard and you’ll get what you want out of it.”
(H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)