Johnny Gargano did everything he wanted to in NXT.
Appearing on a new episode of The Sessions with Renee Paquette, Johnny Gargano spoke about his decision to leave NXT. Gargano said he felt like he did everything he needed to on the brand, then spoke about his emotional final night on the show and why he’d been welling up before he even hit the ring.
“I felt like I was in a good place. I felt like this for a while, to where I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in NXT. That’s kind of one of those things where I said — and I talked about this about kinda betting on yourself — because it is a scary thing to have a new baby on the way and decide I’m going to turn down this new contract that’s a good contract, a safe contract where you’re going to get money every week coming in. I felt really good, I felt just complete and like I said, I felt that way for a long time but being able to end that story on my own terms, have that match and then have that promo segment to where I was able to say goodbye, which a lot of people don’t get to do nowadays,” Gargano pointed out, “I was very lucky to be given that chance.
“It’s funny because so many people thought that I had re-signed, obviously, because they were like ‘no one gets this treatment’ where they’re able to do their match and come out the next night and ’ on live television, which is wild, because it’s live television, I could have said anything I wanted to and they let me say anything I wanted to. I sat down with one of the writers, but all of the words that came out were my own. I wrote my own thing and I wanted to thank people, I feel like I have such a good rapport with everyone in NXT and just in WWE in general that the saddest thing to me — and you can see the footage, I was crying and I was crying for a particular reason when I walked out — I gave a present to Matt Bloom and I gave a present to Shawn Michaels. I told Shawn the caveat was he needed to open his present in front of me right before I went through the curtain. And Shawn’s an emotional guy and I gave him this present and he opens it, and he starts crying which in turn made me start crying,” Gargano noted, “so when you watch the show I’m crying already because we had that moment right before I went through the curtain.”
During one of his recent Twitch streams, Gargano said that he gifted Michaels part of his TakeOver ring gear, and Michaels is the only other person that has any piece of his TakeOver ring attire. Gargano reiterated to Paquette that he gave Michaels one of his headbands in a shadowbox.
Gargano then spoke about having consistency in his day-to-day life in the six years he was with WWE, but now it’s gone and it was a weird feeling. He noted how “everyone” lives in Orlando but he doesn’t see them anymore, then noted how Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly were some of the other changes due to free agency.
“When you’re around all of these people for so long and then you look around the locker room and all of your friends are gone, it affects you. It hurts you because now you’re not seeing your friends anymore on a daily basis and it makes you sad. At that point, I felt like I had a chance to tell my story and end it the right way and kinda leave on great terms. Whatever happens in the future happens,” Gargano said, “but I can take this time to be around Candice, to be around Quill, enjoy Dad life for a little bit because it’s just funny how things work out to where I was able to time that out. It was not on purpose, it was definitely not on purpose, but everything happens for a reason and it gave me a great opportunity.”
Gargano went on to explain that he knew he was leaving a year in advance, and decided to put the most into it and leave on good terms. He doesn’t know if having a baby finalized his decision, but he knew that he needed to be in the right headspace to be a parent and wanted to detach from the wrestling side of things for a bit and focus on his personal life.
Gargano has not wrestled since NXT War Games on December 5, 2021, and his final televised appearance was on the following episode of NXT on USA just two nights later. Despite taking a sabbatical to be with his family, Gargano is starting to make convention appearances, including at WrestleCon in Dallas this year.
Read More: Johnny Gargano: When I’m Ready To Return To The Ring, I Promise You’ll Know
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