Johnny Gargano knew long ahead of time that he was departing WWE when his contract expired.
Johnny Wrestling was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked if there was a certain point where he knew he was going to let his WWE contract expire, Gargano revealed it was almost a year out that he knew he wasn’t going to be renewing his WWE contract.
“I think the last year, I kinda knew that I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in NXT,” Johnny Gargano began. “That’s not to say that I couldn’t have went to RAW and SmackDown and did other things. I just knew coming up on it. I knew I didn’t want to re-sign. But there was also still that option of maybe I do wanna re-sign. I made my mind up, but I was also like there was a little like 1% chance. I always said, like, 99% chance I don’t re-sign. Because there was still a 1% chance, I could have. But I feel like when Candice got pregnant, that’s when the 1% kinda went away. And I was like, I don’t want to have anyone be in charge of my time during the time period where I’m with Quill. I don’t wanna be sitting at home and have a Connecticut number call me and say you need to go be at this show or go do this appearance. I just wanted to have a clean slate, leave on that note, and then be able to come back in the future or go elsewhere.”
While taking time off from professional wrestling, Johnny Gargano is making a point of trying to figure out who he is outside of it. He also hopes that taking some time away will help reignite his passion for the business.
“That’s where the whole bet on yourself thing comes into play,” Johnny Gargano said. “I’m kind of just hoping that this time period where, not only from a physical standpoint but also a mental standpoint to be able to give myself a refresh, go where I can step away from wrestling, step out of that bubble, and also I don’t want to say learn to love it because I’m always gonna love it. But just reignite that passion I had for it to its maximum amount. And also, I just wanted to be in the best place mentally for Quill and Candice and Pawdme.”
READ MORE: Johnny Gargano: I’m Open To Facing Blake Christian In GCW, ‘All My Options Are Open Right Now’
What do you make of Johnny Gargano’s comments? Would you like to see him return to WWE in the future? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit INSIGHT w/ Chris Van Vliet with a link back to this article for the transcription.
