When Johnny Gargano returned to WWE, he was concerned that no one would recognize him. However, he is glad they did, and he now has unfinished business to take care of.
As PWMania.com previously reported, Gargano surprised everyone by joining WWE during this week’s RAW from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His WWE NXT contract expired in December, making him a free agent; this was his first significant wrestling appearance since then. The crowd erupted when Gargano entered the ring, and he ended up taking out Theory, his former tag team partner. As can be seen in the post-RAW video down below, Sarah Schreiber spoke with Gargano following his comeback in front of the Scotiabank Arena’s sold-out crowd.
“I’m still at a loss for words,” Gargano said. “Uh, I don’t know… when you’re away for so long, I was away for nine months, as I said, and I was kind of just changing diapers, and watching ‘Bluey’, and doing the dad thing for a long time, and it was just one of those things where you don’t know if people are gonna remember who you are, and yeah, I was here for a long time, and in NXT, and I did a lot of cool things, but there’s still that big part of me who was just a nervous wreck all day, because I was like, ‘Hopefully… hopefully at least one person remembers who I am!’”
He continued, “And then to stand there, and watch my name come up on the Tron, and see people go nuts. I’m like, ‘Man, it’s really a relief, though. I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders now because people remembered who I am, and now it’s time to get to work.”
Schreiber questioned what Johnny Wrestling’s future held, bringing up how, during his RAW promo, he talked about his desire to win the WWE Title, the WWE Intercontinental Title, the WWE United States Title, and to compete at WrestleMania.
“Well, I said that I came back for a lot of different reasons,” Gargano said. “But first of all, I wanted to be Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, WWE Champion. I want to wrestle at WrestleMania, and there’s only one place you can do that, and that’s here in WWE. That’s why I came back, that’s why I am beyond proud to be here, and just… I am such a ball of energy right now because I just went out there for the first time… literally, I’ve been sitting at home doing nothing for nine months… just diapers and diapers, and you know diapers, there’s no good diapers, I promise. But yeah, I am so over the moon, I’m so excited. And I’m really excited, honestly, now to go back home and see my baby, I think he was watching, he might be sleeping, but he got a chant tonight – there was a ‘Baby Wrestling!’ chant in a WWE ring, yeah. Score one for him, he’s going to appreciate it when he gets older. I’m gonna be like, ‘Watch this tape, watch this VHS!’”
An excited Gargano then wrapped up his promo and added, “Let’s go, let’s go!”
In related news, you can now include WWE Hall of Famer and Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels to the list of top stars who responded to Gargano’s big return to the company on Twitter after RAW.
“Well, would you look at that! Congrats @JohnnyGargano!,” Michaels wrote after the show.
Well, would you look at that! Congrats @JohnnyGargano! https://t.co/7vzqBNd5jp
— Shawn Michaels (@ShawnMichaels) August 23, 2022
Click here for backstage news from Gargano’s return at RAW and click here for full details on his segment with Theory, also with videos. Full WWE RAW results are available at this link.
As of this writing, WWE has not yet added Gargano to the RAW roster or specified when he will make his return to the ring. We will keep you informed.
