Johnny Gargano says he never would have been in NXT if it weren’t for William Regal.
During the “What’s NeXT?” stage show at Starrcast V, Johnny Gargano spoke about how integral William Regal was in helping him and others get opportunities in NXT. Gargano says he and several other notable names were initially told no about being signed by WWE, but Regal spoke up for him and kept trying to find a way to bring him in.
“For some reason, me and Tommaso Ciampa were paired up from that point. We shared a hotel together, and we were friends, we’d done indies together, we wrestled each other on the indies, but we weren’t super close, but we shared a hotel together, we were in the same rental car, we were paired together in drills, we were paired together in tryout matches. For some reason, we were always just paired together. Then, ultimately, when they decided they only wanted to sign one of us, and they signed Oney Lorcan, they signed Athena, or Ember Moon, and they signed TMDK, but they only wanted to sign one male from our group, and that was Oney Lorcan.
“We were all told no. Me, Gulak, Tommaso, Chuck Taylor, we were all told no, they only had one spot for one indie guy. Biff got it, and there wasn’t a spot for us in NXT at the time. I remember hearing that and at the time, I was like man, this sucks. I put a lot of eggs into that basket, I felt like I was ready. I felt like the tryout went great, I felt like I got great rapport with everybody. So when we were told no, William Regal, who is the reason the wrestling landscape, I’m gonna say is the way it is right now. A lot of guys that got opportunities that shouldn’t have gotten opportunities, given their size, got those opportunities because of William Regal, and I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done, not just for professional wrestling, but for me personally.”
“Yeah, there you go, give it up to William Regal. He deserves that. He doesn’t want any recognition, but I’m gonna give him his flowers. I remember back, even at PWG, William Regal, I’m sure if you’re an indie fan, William Regal used to go to all the PWG shows. I remember I saw William Regal maybe two years before my tryout. I wrestled a guy by the name of Kevin Steen that night, otherwise known as Kevin Owens. We had a crazy match that Regal absolutely loved. He looked at me and he saw me, and he said, ‘Johnny, you’re still so young. There’s gonna come a time when we’re gonna get you to WWE, but not yet.’ Then, two years later, he called me personally, got me that tryout, and then after I was told no, he was still trying to find ways to get me in the door. He knew all I needed was an opportunity. All I needed was a foot in the door, so I was brought back to Full Sail a week later to do a dark match against a guy by the name of Uhaa Nation, which became Apollo Crews.
“I did the dark match, I came out at Full Sail, huge ‘Johnny Wrestling’ chants. People went nuts, but that still went nowhere. We were kind of waiting for a while to hear something and then a month later, the idea came up of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and Regal had the idea to put me abs Tommaso together as a tag team. So he called us both individually, brought us down to Orlando. We did the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and I guess at that point, the rest is history. We had the match, people liked it, and then every single month, we would have to text, try to get opportunities. I would text like, ‘Am I on the show? Am I on the card this week?’ Eventually they decided we were doing the indies and we were doing NXT at the same time, which is crazy, that doesn’t happen. That will never happen again. I don’t think the story of me and Tommaso will ever be repeated again, and I’m incredibly luckily for that.”
The “What’s NeXT?” panel also aired on FITE TV. Gargano also spoke about the pros (and Khans) of WWE and AEW, which you can read about at this link.
Read More: Johnny Gargano: My Real Enemy In NXT Was The Little Logo At The Bottom Of The Screen
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