NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano recently spoke with Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc., and he discussed his victory at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. During the interview, Gargano also shared his thoughts on his allegiance with Austin Theory, the use of “Scream” masks, and more. Here are some highlights, transcription credit of Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc.
On he and his wife Candice LaRae embracing their villainous sides:
Gargano: “People look at me and see I’m this prototypical white meat babyface, but I think what you’re seeing on screen right now is the most lifelike, real-life Johnny Gargano there is, which is pretty crazy. Maybe Candice would say the same as well. It’s more real now than it has been. It’s a more real Candice dynamic as well, so it’s super fun to show that on screen now.”
On Indi Harwell and Austin Theory wearing Scream masks before aligning with he and LaRae:
Gargano: “We found out we were going to go with a masked character. Me being me I kind of made a joke about how it should be like this, and it was the ‘Scream’ mask guy. For some reason that’s the first mask that popped in my head. Because it was around Halloween Havoc, I thought and hoped it would be around the ‘Scream’ guy. It was in a joking fashion, but the more we thought about it the more. We thought there was something there.”
“Especially, when you look at how the story panned out. I think one of my favorite parts is there are always two killers in ‘Scream,’ so there is this swerve. So I think there is underlying story-telling there.”
On how long plans have been in place for him to align with Theory:
Gargano: “Theory was pictured to be with me. I wrestled him a few times in EVOLVE. I think [NXT] view it as the Triple H and Randy Orton-esque relationship, which I agreed with. I thought Theory has tons of potential obviously. He was always in the mix to be one of those guys with me. Indi as well. Me and Candice both think very highly of Indie and think she has a very bright future. So we were very happy to have her with us as well.”
“We likened it to Evolution in a sense. Obviously, we’re not putting ourselves on that pedestal because they are an iconic stable for many reasons. Just the idea of being able to be in the ring and mold younger talent for the future. We think that is very important. Indi being able to be around us. Austin being able to be around us. It can bring out different elements of their characters and different things the people haven’t seen on screen yet.”
The full interview is available here:
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