WWE.com recently interviewed NXT star and WWE Cruiserweight Classic competitor Johnny Gargano, talking about his appearances on both of those shows, being promoted for RAW’s new cruiserweight division and more. You can read a few highlights below:
Johnny Gargano comments on all of appearances in WWE and on the indies this year:
It’s really been beyond my wildest dreams. The fact that I’m still able to wrestle on the indies and, yet, still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild. I’m not saying that I’m unhappy doing indie shows; I love doing them. But, a lot of fans came up to me at an indie show I was on last weekend, in Easton, Pa., talking about how they traveled to Brooklyn, and now they’re standing five inches away from me at the merch table saying hello to me. At the Barclays Center, they were hundreds of rows away. It’s pretty crazy. That sums up 2016. That that kind of thing can happen is exciting and amazing.
Gargano comments on being promoted as part of the upcoming Cruiserweight division:
I was actually at my bachelor party when the clip aired on Raw. My phone started blowing up with people saying they saw me. As a wrestling fan, Raw’s the flagship, what we tune into every single week. When you think of wrestling, you think of Raw. To think that there’s going to be guys like me, and when I say that, I mean the cruiserweights — I’ve known a lot of them and wrestled them before WWE. These guys are like me, they were told through their entire career that they were too small and would never make it or be on Monday Night Raw. For all of us to be coming there together is super cool. We’re all excited to show the world what we can do. There’s a New Era in WWE, and we’re going to prove that.
Related: Tonight’s Final EVOLVE 69 Match Card, Johnny Gargano Says Farewell
Gargano shares his feelings on what EVOLVE means to him:
If it wasn’t for EVOLVE Wrestling, I wouldn’t be in WWE. If it wasn’t for EVOLVE, or WWN Live as a whole, I wouldn’t have made it as far in my career as I have. It started with Dragon Gate USA, where I started as a guy on the pre-show and wasn’t promised anything. I kept coming and doing what I do, and ended up on the main show and eventually won their championship. Gabe Sapolsky ran that. During that time, he started up EVOLVE Wrestling, which was the brainchild of him and Daniel Bryan, who named the promotion.
When it first started, Gabe had this concept in mind. It was very different and unique. If you look at the Cruiserweight Classic, it’s similar to EVOLVE. I might say that EVOLVE planted the seeds for CWC. We’re coming up on EVOLVE 68 and 69, which are my last two shows there. I may have missed a few shows here and there, but for the past six years, I’ve been a part of the company in a big, big way. The flyer for the show calls me the “WWN icon,” because I’ve done so much for them. I’d say that I have grown the most in EVOLVE. Gabe gave me the ball. I was his guy, the one who could wrestle 30 minutes in the main event every single show, because that’s what I wanted to do. EVOLVE means the world to me.
How does Gargano want to leave EVOLVE and what is his legacy there?
I want my lasting legacy to be that I was a good wrestler, but a better person. I want people to remember me as a good dude. I think that’s very important. A lot of people will be good wrestlers, but not good people. I think being a good person is a little more important.
It’s weird. I’d always thought about what it would be like, being one of those guys to leave. I’ve been an independent wrestling fan for a long time, so I’ve seen a lot of those farewells. I could name a lot of names who gave impassioned speeches at their farewells. I always wondered what I would do and say in my final act. I still don’t know. I’m going to take in everything around me and see what happens.
I hope that when I leave, people will remember how hard I worked, the matches I’ve had, and that I did whatever it took, no matter how I was feeling, no matter if I was tired, sore or hurt, and gave everything I had. I gave it all away. A lot of me will be left in an EVOLVE Wrestling ring.
