Johnny Gargano, one of the pillars of NXT over the last several years and one of two men to ever become NXT Triple Crown Champion, has wrestled just three times since the start of July. During that time he’s made plenty of television appearances — mostly in skits involving Dexter Lumis and The Way — and announced he and Candice LeRae are expecting their first child in early 2022. However, “Johnny Wrestling’s” recent actions on Twitter have fans suddenly wondering if he’s on his way out of NXT now that the brand has been rebooted as NXT 2.0.
It started when Gargano posted a photo of his championship belt case on Tuesday, posing the question “What’s next?” On Wednesday fans noticed Gargano had removed any mention of NXT or the WWE from his Twitter bio.
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Gargano started wrestling in NXT back in 2015 but wouldn’t sign a full-time contract with the company until well over a year later (by that point he had already competed in the Cruiserweight Classic and become a fan-favorite alongside Tommaso Ciampa as the tag team DIY). In the years that followed he won the tag titles with Ciampa, had what many consider to be NXT’s greatest feud against his former tag partner, won the NXT North American Championship a record three times, finally captured the NXT title at NXT TakeOver: New York in 2019 and racked up five NXT Year-End Awards.
After a somewhat botched call-up in early 2019, Gargano began stating publicly that he’d never leave NXT for WWE’s main roster. However, a lot has changed about the brand since he first made that claim. The last month of NXT 2.0 has shown an increased focus on wrestlers trained at the Performance Center, and the idea that the brand is considered developmental rather than WWE’s third brand has been consistently reinforced. It’s also worth noting that many of NXT’s top stars from the past few years have either been called up recently or are now gone from the company. Fightful Select reported last month that Gargano’s current deal is set to expire in December, but that WWE is expected to negotiate with Gargano on a new deal before then.
Do you think Gargano is on his way out of NXT? Will he do what Adam Cole did and leave the company entirely? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments!
