Johnny Gargano ‘Strongly Considered’ AEW, Tony Khan Didn’t Pursue Him

WWE

Johnny Gargano reportedly ‘strongly considered’ AEW before re-joining WWE with Triple H in charge of creative.

After Gargano finished up with WWE in December 2021, there was a lot of speculation surrounding the former NXT Champion’s next move in wrestling.

While the star ultimately made his WWE return on the August 22 edition of Raw, he had thought about signing with AEW during his time away from the ring, according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Noting that Tony Khan didn’t seriously pursue Gargano, Meltzer noted:

“Obviously when Gargano didn’t sign a contract when his old deal expired in December, he strongly considered AEW. His mentality at the time was that with a son coming, money was important but it was also about having fun and for him that is the ability to do the great matches that got him over in NXT.

“AEW was the place for that at that time, plus the schedule was favorable since his body has a lot of wear and tear. He had openly talked about wanting to wrestle Omega and called Omega the best in the world.

“Since NXT had changed and Vince McMahon called him up once and then quickly lost interest in him and no matter how many great matches he would have, he would always be a small guy, AEW at that time seemed like the better option.

“For whatever reason, AEW didn’t go after him and had a long time to make him an offer. There were those in AEW interested but in the end Tony Khan had to make decisions of who he wanted. There was also interest in Candice LeRae from AEW but not sure if they’ve pursued it hard or what her current status would be.

“With Vince out, he was the perfect example of a guy that this opened the door to and the timing ended up perfect for him to come in with a good money contract.”

Gargano last wrestled at NXT WarGames 2021, teaming with Ciampa, Pete Dunne (Butch) & LA Knight (Max Dupri) to face off against Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller & Tony D’Angelo.

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