One of the fan favorites in WWE is Johnny Gargano. The former WWE NXT World Champion was once leaning towards retirement once he hit 40 years of age.
Now, he seems to reconsidering that option.
Recently, the DIY member was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet on his Insight podcast. During the interview, Gargano talked about when he wanted to retire from professional wrestling. But he is yet to compete in WrestleMania or win a major title on the WWE Main Roster.
“I always said that I was gonna be done by 40. That was always my go-to age. And then as we get closer to that, I’m still four years away. But as we get closer to that, I think I got a little bit more in me. I mean, like I said, I came back to WWE for a reason. And obviously there were discussions to go other places. And my agent obviously had those discussions. But at the end of the day, I told him, my heart was with WWE. Like, I still want to wrestle at WrestleMania. I haven’t done that yet. I still want to be the Intercontinental champion. Haven’t done that yet. I haven’t won a title on the main roster yet. I want to do that too.”
Johnny Gargano has a lot left to accomplish
While Gargano is still looking to capture gold on the main roster, he still has many more things left for him to accomplish.
“There’s still a lot left for me to accomplish and a lot of stories I still want to tell. And I’ve been very excited to do that. And like I said the last night in the company was very sad. And I think Tommaso brought up my tears, and where they came from in that show.
Johnny Gargano had a special gift for Shawn Michaels
“And a story I think I’ve only told maybe once before, but I have such a great relationship and I’m very lucky and it’s crazy to say with Shawn Michaels. He was my hero growing up, and I spent a lot of time with him. And I made the shadow boxes for people that are really special to me in that building. I made a shadow box for Shawn, I made a shadow box for Coach Bloom.
“And I made, I gave cards to all the coaches, everything I’ve learned, spent seven years with Terry Taylor, Steve Corino, I gave them special cards and stuff. I have pictures of us together. Because it was my last night did feel like it was like a goodbye for a while. It was funny I say goodbye for a while but I was literally still going to Performance Center with Candace. We brought the baby to the PC like literally two months later, or maybe three months later or whatever.
“But I had that gift for Shawn. It’s a shadow box, it had my headband from a TakeOver. He’s the only person other than me that has a piece of my TakeOver gear. I did it for In Your House where it was like kind of my Shawn Michaels gear. So I had that put in a shadow box. Again, I’m luckily I have a great wife that helps me with these things, by the way, because I’m not making shadow boxes by myself. The headband with a picture of me and Shawn, from when I was in high school and a picture of me and Shawn in that year from that TakeOver.
A note for The Heartbreak Kid
“And I wrote a really nice note on the back. Shawn actually has it hanging up in his office, if you see any interviews he does, where he’s at his desk, it’s actually behind him, which is cool. So I bought this gift to him. And I said, I’m gonna give you this gift, but there’s a catch. You can’t open it until I’m getting ready to go through the curtain. Because I want to be emotional out there. And you’re going to be the one that’s going to give me that emotion. Like I’m going to see how this affects you. And it’s going to transfer to me. And I’m going to go through the current right when that happens. And literally, I give him the gift.
“And Road Dogg is counting down the time. He’s like, okay, Johnny, given the gift. And literally, like we’re in a commercial break, and wrote, I was like, okay, 30 29. And Shawn opens it up. And Shawn looks at it. And he starts getting really emotional. And he hugs me. And of course, like I get emotional, then my music starts playing. So when I walk through that curtain, you’re seeing literally the direct reaction of me feeling that moment, but also giving that gift to Shawn and seeing how it affected him. And just that that’s me walking through the curtain for my last time at NXT for then, and then you know, you got it,” Johnny Gargano said.
Do you think Gargano will be able to capture the top prize in WWE before hanging up his wrestling boots?
