Johnny Gargano made his surprise return to the WWE on this week’s Monday Night Raw, cutting a promo in front of a joyous Toronto crowd before superkicking his former The Way stablemate, (Austin) Theory. Gargano had previously departed WWE back in December in order to be home for the birth of his son, Quill, and teased the idea of jumping to other companies in the months that followed. After the segment, Gargano cut a promo backstage, saying he was at a loss for words after the great reception he received and was a “nervous wreck” leading up to the episode.
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“I said that I came back for a lot of different reasons, but first of all, I wanted to be Intercontinental Champion, United States champion, WWE Champion. I want to wrestle at WrestleMania, and there’s only one place you can do that, and that’s here in WWE,” Gargano said. “That’s why I came back, that’s why I am beyond proud to be here. I’m just a ball of energy because I just went out there for the first one. Literally, I’ve been sitting at home doing nothing for nine months. Just diapers, and you know diapers, there’s no good diapers, I promise. But yeah, I’m so over the moon, I’m so excited. I’m really excited honestly now to go back home and see my baby. I think he was watching. He might be sleeping. He got a chant tonight. There was a ‘Baby Wrestling’ chant in a WWE ring. Yeah, score one for him! He’s gonna appreciate it when he gets older. I’m gonna be like, ‘Hey, watch this tape. Watch this VHS.’”
Reports regarding Gargano have since popped up online. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp wrote that his return was kept a secret up until minutes before he appeared on the entrance ramp, then noted that advanced negotiations between “Johnny Wrestling” and AEW — which seemed to be the obvious landing spot until Paul Levesque took over as Head of Creative, never happened.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson then noted that Gargano’s return under his real name was an indication that a Vince McMahon edict about wrestlers not allowed to use any aspect of their real name is now gone under Levesque’s leadership. He wrote, “There were also a lot of people inside the company who noted that Gargano was brought back and didn’t have a name change, a sign that the old Vince McMahon edict that real names and previous independent wrestling ring names were forbidden is gone.”
