Johnny Gargano Reveals When He Was Told Of WWE Roster Call-Up

WWE called up four of their top NXT stars to the main roster two weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere, shocking the wrestling world in the process.

Ever since Johnny Gargano, Ricochet, Tommaso Ciampa, and Aleister Black were called up, they have proceeded to work both RAW and SmackDown each week with seemingly no end in the immediate future. We've heard all four men will be working both shows through WrestleMania.

Rather than being a short term call-up, this one is looking more and more permanent. Especially after Aleister Black's recent farewell speech at an NXT live event.

So how far in advance did these men know about their main roster fortunes? Johnny Gargano spoke about that with NBC Cleveland in advance of WWE Fastlane next weekend and a NXT live event there this weekend.

"I was actually in Cleveland when I got the call that I was going to be on Raw and SmackDown," Gargano recalled. "I was at my mom's house and it was in the morning. They said, 'Hey, you're going to be on Raw and SmackDown in a couple days,' which is pretty crazy. It seems like all of my biggest life events happen when I'm actually at home in Cleveland, around my family. I was there for my dad's 77th birthday party, so I got to go to his party later that night and say, 'Hey, I'm going to be on Raw and SmackDown in a couple days.' It's super cool, man. I know I've used the word, 'cool' a lot, but I'm still just a kid from Cleveland, and life is just cool."

Gargano hit on his hometown connections even more, comparing NXT to the Cleveland Browns and revealing that there's an unofficial competition backstage between stars on having the best match of the night.

"I think NXT is kind of like the Cleveland, Ohio of professional wrestling," Gargano said. "We're that underdog whose hungry, who's always out to prove people wrong, and that's kind of what our locker room represents. We've got a bunch of guys who have been travelling around the world for over 10 years, scratching and clawing, fighting, just trying to live their dream, just trying to prove people wrong, just trying to show that we belong, and that's kind of the essence of NXT. We're young, we're hungry and we're ready to show the world that we're the best at what we do. We're kind of like the Cleveland Browns right now."

He continued, "We're all out to set our best foot forward and to make NXT the best we possibly can, but at the end of the day, we all want to have the best match. It's an incredibly talented locker room filled with guys that are able to go out and steal the show at any given notice. You kind of look at our Takeovers, and there's five main events. Like every, single match is a main event, which is pretty crazy when you think about it. It's unspoken, but all of us go out there and we try to give the people their money's worth and nothing will stop us from doing that. I said before 'Halftime Heat' that NXT will put on a show like you've never seen before, and that's what we always set out to do."