Johnny Gargano Wanted His Pro Wrestling Hiatus To Be An Entire Year

Johnny Gargano was considered the heart and soul of NXT by many fans due to his iconic feuds with the likes of Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole and more.

After Gargano’s WWE departure, fans simply wondered what the future held for Johnny Wrestling. After Triple H became the Creative head of WWE, fans believed Gargano would come back. That is what ended up happening in the end, as fans were simply glad.

Gargano finally made his return to WWE on last month’s episode of Monday Night RAW. While speaking on WWE After The Bell, Johnny Gargano was asked if he considered retiring from wrestling during his time away from WWE.

Yes and no (did I ever think about stepping away from wrestling permanently). I gave myself kind of a year. When I left in December, I kind of said, okay, I am content being gone December — I think December 7th might have been my last NXT show — December 7th to December whatever, December-January.

Advertising

Advertising

I was okay taking off a full year, letting my body rest, letting my body recover but also letting my mind recover and also reenergizing myself. I’ve done this for almost 18 years at this point and I’ve been very lucky, I haven’t had any major injuries, I haven’t had any major time off, knock on wood somewhere.

So, I haven’t had any downtime so for me and as you guys know, there is no off-season in what we do so we’re just going consistently, especially when before I even got here, on the indies, I was going pretty hard every single week at multiple shows, double shots, wrestling multiple times a weekend, staying in shape, doing all that stuff like that.

It mentally wears on you and especially in this current day and age with social media and things like that-that get in your head and the mental health problems we all have to kind of go through. I was just totally fine taking this year, spending it with my baby and being a stay-at-home dad, working on my dad bod which I did, working on my dad bod, getting ready to go and just being happy.

I was totally fine with that, with wrestling not being in my life. I don’t know if there was any point where I decided maybe I won’t come back.

Obviously, it crossed my mind a few times when I’m staying at home and I’m able to do whatever I want and I don’t have anyone to answer to, anywhere to go, I wake up in my own bed every single day, I work out in my own gym, I hang out with my kid, it’s a great life.”

It remains to be seen how Johnny Gargano will be booked in the coming weeks. He’ll be in action on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW. We’ll have to see how he’ll fare in his match.

Are you excited to see Johnny Gargano back? Sound off in the comments!