For the longest time, I was horrified to hear the word 'failure,' but I've come to realize that we all fail. It's just a part of life. We all fall. It's how you rebound that shows the type of person you are.
Johnny Gargano
I've said many times how big a wrestling fan I am, but all my bias aside as her husband, I'm a huge Candice LeRae fan. I was a huge Candice LeRae fan before we started dating. I was a huge Candice LeRae fan before we got married.
The reason Tommaso Ciampa is NXT champion is because of me. I admitted that, and it's my mistake to fix.
Sometimes you have to fall lower than you've ever been to stand taller than you ever could.
It's a blessing and a curse, 'cause I'm never satisfied, so I continually want to outdo myself. But still, I'm never happy.
When I was Cedrick Von Haussen, the champion of Liechtenstein, I was only 18 years old. I was super, duper young. I started traveling around for wrestling when I was 16, so I had only been wrestling a few years at that point.
We're all out to set our best foot forward and to make NXT the best we possibly can, but at the end of the day, we all want to have the best match.
I've had some of my best matches in front of 50 people in bingo halls and VFW halls and things like that.
A lot of people have said that what makes me stand out is my passion, my heart.
I'm walking around our apartment right now, and I see tons of action figures everywhere. There's Spider-Man stuff, old 1996 WWF figures, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Marvel stuff.
I've wrestled Rich Swann countless times. I've faced Akira Tozawa in Japan and America. Zack Sabre Jr. is another guy I've faced many times.
I've always been a singles guy.
If you watch the Cruiserweight Classic, you want different professional wrestling. You want guys who are going to go out there, put their bodies on the line, and show you passion.
When I'm in the ring, I can hear the reactions and know the people are enjoying themselves.
I'm very open and very honest about my actions, especially to the NXT universe. I never lie to them. I never do. I am very real with them.
The fact that I'm still able to wrestle on the indies and yet still do my stuff in NXT, and the fact that I wrestled in front of 15,000 people at the Barclays Center at TakeOver, and then, the following weekend, I was still doing indie shows, is wild.
I'm an NXT Superstar and the current NXT Champion.
Anything nerd-wise, I have probably collected it, and it's displayed in our apartment.
I have nothing but respect for Adam Cole. I've known him for a very long time, and he's one of the best in the world.
It's always fascinating to me and blows my mind whenever I'm in a video game because I am such a big video game fan at heart.
I do believe that Raw, SmackDown, and NXT are the three brands, and I think that people can come from Raw or SmackDown to NXT, and I think that people from NXT can go to Raw or SmackDown. It's very interchangeable.
I am not the best high-flyer or technical wrestler. What I do have is a work ethic that can't be beat.
For me, I am not a fan of any of my own matches, and it's both a blessing and a curse. Because I'm never satisfied, I'm always looking to improve in every area.
I saw 'Infinity War' in theaters four times.
I hate all of my own matches. I hate all of my own work. I am my worst critic.
When I was younger, my favorite wrestlers were Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. I relate to them. I don't know what it was.
I am super happy and super proud that Candice LeRae is in the WWE Performance Center.
My mom made me a Shawn Michaels costume when I was a kid. I wore it every day and ran around the house dancing like him.
NXT is my life. Plain and simple. I've put my heart and soul into this company, and I truly love it and its fans.
If you're a good person, and you work hard, I believe ultimately things are meant to happen to good people.
We've got a bunch of guys who have been travelling around the world for over 10 years, scratching and clawing, fighting, just trying to live their dream, just trying to prove people wrong, just trying to show that we belong, and that's kind of the essence of NXT.
NXT in my head is something I'm trying to help build, get it to its peak. I will do whatever I have to: I will strap NXT to my back and carry it up a cliff if I have to.
I realized in myself, look, I'm a small guy. I'm never going to be 250 pounds - I'm never going to be 6'5'' - but I can get as jacked and as lean as humanly possible.
I didn't have a contract for the first year of my time in NXT, and that was very stressful.
Growing up, I was a socially awkward kid who didn't know where he fit in, and I didn't have many friends, but I always had wrestling. I always had what was in between those ropes, and that always put a smile on my face no matter what.
For me, Philadelphia was always kind of that city you traveled to as an independent wrestler. I traveled there once or twice a month, doing that seven-to-eight-hour drive from Cleveland to Philly just to try and make a name for myself.
I'm still that indie kid at heart. I'm still that guy who wrestled in front of 15 people and never knew he'd make it to WWE. I'm still that person.
I'm a huge wrestling video game fan. I grew up on wrestling video games.
I'm a humungous Browns fan. My 30th birthday was actually at the Browns' stadium.
I'm kind of a smaller guy in my given profession, and people always told me I'm too small, so I know how it feels to have people tell you you'll never be anything.
I was a socially awkward 8-year-old kid who fell in love with wrestling when he felt like the whole world was against him. That's the key word: love. I don't do this for revenge; I do this because I love it. That's Johnny Wrestling.
I have a very open and honest relationship with the NXT Universe.
I'd love for it to go away and for people not to see NXT as a downgrade. I definitely don't think it is.
I play my Switch a lot when I'm traveling, when I'm on the bus or things like that.
When I was younger, I actually stepped foot in a ring for the first time at 8 years old because of my dad.
I don't think I'd be in WWE, and I wouldn't be in NXT, if it wasn't for my time in EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA and things like that.
This isn't the same Johnny Gargano that is going to overreact to things and let his emotions get the best of him. In 2019, I'm a little calmer and more collected.
Wins and championships - I want it all. I want there to be no doubt who I am. I want there to be no doubt that I'm a winner.
I've main-evented the most matches in NXT history.
I don't see myself as anything special. I'm just Johnny Gargano. I always have been, no matter what I'm about to do or where I am.
