Johnny Gargano recently appeared as a guest on the Out Of Character podcast for an in-depth interview with Ryan Satin.
During the appearance on the popular pro wrestling program, the WWE and NXT veteran spoke about his talks with the company about returning after taking a hiatus, as well as his working relationship with Shawn Michaels and Paul "Triple H" Levesque, and conversations he had with other wrestling promotions before returning to WWE.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On how soon he began talks with WWE after Vince McMahon retired due to the mainstream controversy: “It was pretty quick. I’m trying to think of the exact timeline of it cause it went by pretty fast. The one thing I will say is in my downtime, everyone was extremely respectful of my time away. They understood that I kind of wanted to focus on the dad thing for a while."
On his working relationship and personal friendship with Shawn Michaels and Paul "Triple H" Levesque: “I do have a team around me that were having discussions, that were having conversations different places but as soon as the changes happened, as soon as everything went the way it did, communication definitely increased in abundance. I have a different relationship with Hunter and Shawn than a lot of other people. I’ve known them for a long time now at this point and I’ve always said they are like my wrestling dads because they are.”
On conversations he had with other promotions: “There were conversations, for sure. We’d be dumb not to have those conversations, right? Especially given everything that was going on, the uncertainty around everything. I watch everything, I’m a fan of wrestling, and for me, it just felt like I wanted to go to the place that not only could utilize me best but also a place where I already have a relationship with Hunter and a relationship with a lot of people backstage. That was the big thing for me, I’m all about relationships, I’m all about the familiarity and as soon as the change happened, I think there was only one option in my head.”
On it being a 'no-brainer' when deciding whether or not to return to WWE: “The fact that I could take my time, wait it out, and kind of just pick my spot in the place I’ve dreamed of working since I was a little kid, it seemed like a no-brainer and it seemed like a home run."
Check out the complete episode of the Out Of Character with Ryan Satin podcast featuring the new Johnny Gargano interview by visiting Apple.com. H/T to Marc Middleton and WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
