Johnny Gargano Reveals Which Popular TV Show Inspired His WWE Return

WWE

Former NXT Champion Johnny Gargano made his return to WWE last month on Raw in Toronto, surprising the WWE fans in the arena by coming to the ring after a commercial break.

Gargano left WWE back in December 2021 when his contract expired, with him taking 8 months off to spend time with his newborn son, Quill. Gargano has since admitted that he considered signing with ‘other companies’ before ultimately making his WWE return.

During his time away, Gargano was able to indulge in many non-wrestling hobbies of his, including playing video games on Twitch and watching movies and television shows. One show that Gargano has clearly been binging during his time away is the hit Netflix show ‘Stranger Things’, as he told the story on WWE After the Bell this week about how the show helped inspire his return to WWE.

He explained:

“So I’ll tell you guys a story, and this is how my mind works apparently. So you guys have seen Stranger Things, obviously, right? Okay, so the song ‘Running Up That Hill’, by Kate Bush became very popular. And so I was watching, and I might have texted you at this time, Vic [Joseph]; I can’t remember. This is when I knew what I wanted to do. I was watching Stranger Things, and the song came on, and the first thing that popped into my head was, wait a minute, that’s Shawn [Michaels] versus The Undertaker’s song from WrestleMania. Placebo did a cover of it. But that’s where my mind went, and I was like, I remember that. That’s right, and I watched the hype video of Shawn and Taker from Mania. I sat there in the kitchen, and Candice was right there. She can tell you this. I sat there in the kitchen; I watched this hype video as she’s doing baby stuff. And it just hit me watching this video was like, ‘This is what I want to do. This is where I want to be, and this is what I want to do. This is why I got into this.’ To have videos like this about me but also to have these WrestleMania stories and matches. And I haven’t had that yet. I haven’t had that WrestleMania moment. I haven’t had that Wrestlemania match. So in a roundabout way, Stranger Things playing that song and me correlating it to Shawn vs. Taker from Mania, which led me to watching the music video again in my kitchen, led me being like, that’s what I want to do. I want to wrestle at WrestleMania, so that’s a long-winded story of how we ended up where we are.”

Gargano is set to make his in-ring debut as a part of the Monday Night Raw roster on next week’s episode of the show, against an opponent that has not yet been announced.

Corey Graves also admitted on the show that he, nor any of the Raw announcers, knew about Gargano’s return to the company before he came to the ring that night.

transcription via WrestleZone

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