NXT TakeOver WarGames delivered in more ways than one, and one of the many highlights of the night involved Johnny Gargano, who pulled out all the stops to regain the North American Championship from Leon Ruff. He had to also go through Damian Priest to do it, and that’s why it was handy to have some help making it all happen in the form of several Ghostfaces that included the newest addition to the team Austin Theory. The Garganos have built themselves a strong team over the past few months with Theory and Indi Hartwell, and ComicBook.com recently had the chance to talk to Gargano all about his Championship win at WarGames, what led to Theory joining the team, his love-hate relationship with Wheels, and even what he wants his Funko POP to be. First though we had to start with Theory, who made an immediate impact at WarGames, and the seeds of this team-up can be traced to their days in Evolve.
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“So this partnership has been brewing for quite a while actually,” Gargano said. “I have always seen something in Austin Theory. I think we’ve all seen something in Austin Theory. But he has a lot of gifts, a lot of natural tools, a lot of things that I honestly, was not given. He looks like he was made in a friggin lab. I could say the same thing about Indi Hartwell for that instance. Both of those people look like we just built them up and gave them all the gifts in the world. But I wrestled Austin Theory at Evolve a few years ago, and I always thought that he has tons of potential and I am excited to be able to kind of mold that potential into what I think is necessary.”
Johnny and Candice seem to be enjoying their new personas immensely, and their dynamic onscreen as characters has never been more entertaining as a result. That will only get better with the inclusion of Hartwell and Theory, who just add new personalities for Johnny and Candice to play off of.
“I think it took a little bit to catch our footing and kind of figure out what we wanted this to be, but honestly, the more we included our real-life dynamic into the characters…a lot of people see me and they see that I’m the prototypical underdog babyface, but what you see on screen right now is probably the most real-life Johnny Gargano that’s ever been on screen. And that’s terrifying to say, but it is very much so. I am kind of goofy, and my comedic timing is kind of all over the place, and I’m kind of just now just being real-life me on camera, which is very, very fun. But being able to do now, and kind of our real-life dynamic on-screen and now with the inclusion of Austin Theory and Indi Hartwell, just gives us more things to play off of.”
With the additions of Hartwell and Theory, the Garganos actually have a strong faction going, and while we don’t have an official team name yet, Gargano did say they’ve already said the name on television.
“The name has been said, so I’ll just throw that out there,” Gargano said. “I won’t tell you what it is yet, because it has been said, and you can probably figure it out based on tweets and verbiage. But yes, it does have a name. I don’t know when that name will be officially announced, but we have said it already.”
Speaking of that team, they’ve already got a great squad, but if he could pick someone from Raw or SmackDown to join the team, we wanted to know who it would be, and the answer is gold.
“If I had to pick anyone from Raw and SmackDown, man, I think I’d have to go with The Fiend,’ Gargano said. “If I could pick anyone and they’re all on the table, I’d love to have The Fiend on my side because I think I could do some wild stuff with The Fiend.”
Now, if you’ve recently typed Johnny Gargano into google, it’s going to be quite easy to find the word Wheel attached, and that’s the result of many hilarious segments featuring Gargano’s ongoing rollercoaster ride involving spinning wheels. The back and forth feelings towards wheel has become a fan favorite, and Gargano admits he didn’t see that coming.
“No, I didn’t. So I said the wheel thing, I said, ‘I hate wheels’ in like a rehearsal and everyone laughed and everyone loved it. And I was like, ‘Hmm. Okay. Everyone thought that was really funny but I just said that as a goof.’ So I was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to say it on camera now.’ And then I said it on camera and then everyone loved it even more. And then I kind of said, ‘Hmm. Okay. Like maybe there might be something here with this wheel thing?’ I think the best part of all this now too, is like the NXT writing team and Triple H and everyone are kind of sharing my sense of humor and they really know how to write me now,” Gargano said. “And they really know like, they came up with these off the wall ideas like, ‘Oh, you’re going to have a wheel and you’re going to put different names on it.”
“Like, I love it. I think it’s friggin great. I love all that stuff. That’s fantastic. So I did not think… it developed over time too because it started like, obviously I hate wheels. And then I was like, Oh, after Halloween Havoc, I can love wheels. And then I was like, ‘Oh, I hate wheels again.’ I just want to be a professional liar too, or like, I always want to deny whatever I say. I want to change my mind. That’s my favorite part I’ve done. But no, I had no idea the wheel thing was going to take off like it did, but I guess that’s kind of my favorite part of the character now,” Gargano said. “If you give me anything, if you give me like an inanimate object, like a television or a wheel, I will try to get it over to the best of my abilities and I can make it work. So, that’s kind of my favorite thing right now.”
Another perfect example of this is a recent video that shows Gargano’s war against Candice’s best friends, specifically their accents, and it seems this is already bubbling to be another Wheel-style favorite for fans, adding another layer to his character after hearing for years he didn’t have one.
“Yeah, the Tegan accent, then I went after an Io accent. I went after I said I couldn’t understand what she says. I love it, so many different character traits I have now, where I just love TV, hate wheels, don’t understand accents. I kind of took it as a challenge because I always knew like what I was or who I am I guess as a real person. When I was the old Johnny wrestling underdog character, and everyone would be like, ‘Oh, but what’s his character?’ All these internet, ‘What’s his character? I don’t know what his character is.’ And I always took that as like, ‘Okay, just you friggin wait and see. I’m going to be the friggin most wildest thing you’ve ever been in your life.’ So now I’m like, ‘If anyone asks me what my character is today, the answer is, all of them.’”
Gargano got his title back at WarGames, and fan reaction to the event was quite high, continuing the tradition of high marks for WarGames events in general. That’s why he asked if WarGames rivals WrestleMania, and while he’s not sure about that, he does know that the event still holds something he wants to check off his bucket list in the future.
“It’s tough to say because obviously, WrestleMania kind of stands on its own and nothing will touch WrestleMania. But I do think that WarGames is one of NXT’s premier events and something that all wrestling fans look forward to,” Gargano said. “And it honestly kills me that I’ve never been a part of a WarGames match. In all my time at NXT, that is the one thing I have not done is been in WarGames. So, I’m crossing my fingers for next year that I’m actually in that one. My wife on the other hand, Candice has been in two of them already. So she’s lapped me like crazy and won two of them. So she’s friggin, Mrs. WarGames.”
Johnny and Candice have crossed one other item off their bucket lists, however, as they’ve both been turned into action figures. Johnny even has a figure sporting his Wolverine gear coming next year. They have not had Funko POPs yet though, and so we had to ask if Funko changed that what gear would they want to be featured in.
“Okay. So, if it’s me and Candice together, then I would definitely have to go with the Jack and Sally gear from Halloween Havoc,” Gargano said. “I feel like that has to be the one for the Funko Pop! set of me and her. Yeah, Jack and Sally from Halloween Havoc I feel it is our best couple’s gear. Obviously for me solo, the TakeOver: New York Iron Man gear still holds a special place in my heart. I’d like to see that somewhere. So that one, I’m still holding out hope that there’s a figure of that made in the future. But as far as Funko, and that’s still the dream by the way, I’ve never had a Funko Pop! and I cross my fingers every day that I get one. But as far as a couples one, I’ll go with the Jack and Sally gear.”
We’ve got our fingers crossed that happens too, but in the meantime, you can catch Gargano every Wednesday night on NXT, which airs at 8 PM EST on USA Network.
You can catch coverage of NXT each week right here on ComicBook.com, and as always you can talk all things NXT with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
