Johnny Gargano was back at the WWE Performance Center this week, as revealed via a tweet from Malcolm Bivens on Tuesday. The former NXT Triple Crown Champion departed from WWE after his contract expired in December and has stated in numerous interviews that he’s leaving his options open for what to do next. He looked noticeably tired in the photo while holding his son, Quill, as Bivens wore a huge smile and wrote, “Fatherhood is whoopin his a—.”
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You can probably hear it in my voice. I’m very tired. It is a 24/7 job,” Gargano said in an interview with ComicBook at WrestleCon earlier this month when asked about fatherhood. “And I tell Candice this all the time, I have no idea of how single parents, or people have to work normal nine to five jobs, do it. We’re incredibly lucky. We don’t have to do anything during the day. We hang out with the kid all day. We stay up all night with the baby. Because that’s what you do. I couldn’t imagine staying up all night and then having to go work a nine to five job. It’s insane to me because anymore, like a normal baby, I guess, sleeps less than two hours. Wants to eat constantly. Those are just one of those things where you’re on 24/7.”
He also talked about the fan speculation surrounding his next move — “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,”
One of the growing theories is that he’ll eventually make his way to AEW. Fans even started chanting “Johnny Wrestling” during the main event of the last AEW Dynamite to be in Cleveland earlier this year.
“When you step out of the spotlight, I think this is a normal thing for any performer, when you step out, you question if people are going to remember you, if people are even going to care,” Gragano said. “Coming here to Wrestle Con this weekend, I was like, ‘Are people going to want to meet me?’ I don’t know. I’m out of the limelight. I’m hanging out with a baby all day. I don’t know how I’m viewed anymore.”
