WWE superstar and former triple-crown champion Johnny Gargano recently joined El Brunch de WWE for an in-depth conversation about all things pro-wrestling, including his thoughts on superheroes, and how his love of comic books reminds him of professional wrestling. Highlights from the interview are below.
On the similarities he saw between pro-wrestling and comic book heroes:
“As we talked about already, I am a big nerd, and I love superheroes and larger-than-life characters. So when I was younger, I was a fan of the Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One of my best friends at the time was a big wrestling fan, so he was watching this thing called professional wrestling, and he showed me it. I was like wow, this is kind of like superheroes and larger-than-life characters in the real world, like come to life. I think I realized at that point like I can’t be a Power Ranger, and I can’t be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle in real life, as those aren’t real professions and real jobs that I could attain.”
How he can feel like a hero wearing a colorful costume and performing in the ring:
“But I can be a professional wrestler, and I can do that in real life, and I can wear these crazy costumes and do this larger-then-life acrobatics and have this crazy entertainment value. So I think those kind of things kind of go hand in hand. I kind of always think wrestling is like a comic book come to life. So the fact that I’m able to be a kind of real-life kind of quasi comic book character/superhero guy, I think it kind of goes hand in hand there. So I think that’s why it really appealed to me when I was younger. Like I can’t be Batman, but I can be Johnny Gargano I guess.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)