Johnny Gargano Tries to Shoot Down Theories That He's Heading to AEW's Forbidden Door This Sunday

By Connor Casey

 AEW's Forbidden Door pay-per-view takes this Sunday at the United Center in Chicago and is already teasing one surprise debut. After confirming that he wouldn't be cleared to compete at the show, Bryan Danielson teased a handpicked replacement for his match against Zack Sabre Jr. The speculation has been running wild on social media ever since, with names like Cesaro and Ring of Honor World Champion Jonathan Gresham getting tossed around. But when Johnny Gargano announced he'd be in Chicago that same day at the Chicago Card Show, the speculation immediately pointed in his direction. 

"Johnny Wrestling" tried to quell those rumors, writing, "I promise you this is ridiculously coincidental and has been booked for months. I'll only be in Chicago for like 8 hours! *I also realize in saying this that only like 5% of you are going to believe I'm actually telling the truth."

Gargano spoke with ComicBook during WrestleCon 2022 and talked about considering his options after he allowed his WWE contract to expire back in December. He and his wife, Candice LeRae, welcomed their first child (a son named Quill) in February and LeRae has since become a free agent as well.

"So I made it a point to ask people, 'Where would you like?' They would say, 'We can't wait to see you in the ring again.' And I always went, 'I'm curious, where would you like to see me go next?' And obviously, AEW was a big topic of conversation from everybody, but there were some people that actually said, 'I want to see you go to Raw. I want to see you go to SmackDown. Don't go to AEW, don't go back to [WWE].' It's varied all across the board, but I think you see me. And a lot of my friends work for a certain company right now. So I guess it's very easy to make that comparison," Gargano said. 

Do you buy Garagano's explanation? Or is he simply covering up the surprise? Let us know you thoughts in the comments and check out the full card for Forbidden Door below!

  • Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • IWGP World Championship: Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page vs. Adam Cole
  • AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC vs. Miro vs. Tomohiro Ishii vs. Malakai Black
  • IWGP United States Championship: Will Ospreay vs. Orange Cassidy
  • AEW Women's World Championship: Thunder Rosa vs. Toni Storm
  • ROH and IWGP Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan vs. Roppongi Vice
  • Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi vs. Young Bucks, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo
  • Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
  • Zack Sabre Jr. vs. TBA
  • (Kickoff) The Gunn Club and Max Caster vs. NJPW Dojo

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