Johnny Gargano discusses NXT departure, saying goodbye on the air, staying fresh as a character

Johnny Gargano discussed his time in NXT and what lead up to his decision to not sign a new deal with WWE last year on The Sessions with Renee Paquette podcast. Gargano said he left because he had accomplished everything he wanted to in NXT.

“I felt like I was in a good place. I had felt this way for a while to where I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in NXT,” said Gargano.”It is kind of a scary thing to have a new baby on the way and decide I’m going to turn down this new contract that’s a good contract, a safe contract that you’re going to get money every single week coming in, to kind of go off and do your own thing.”

Gargano continued to say that he was lucky to get the chance to say goodbye the way he did on air. He also discussed writing his goodbye promo for his final NXT show.

“I was very lucky to be given that chance. It’s so funny because so many people thought that I had re-signed, obviously, because they were like ‘no one gets this treatment’,” said Gargano. “I went and I sat down with one of the writers but all the words that came out were my own. I wrote my own thing,” he continued. “I wanted to thank people, I wanted to do things like that. I feel like I just have such a good relationship, a good rapport with everyone in NXT and everyone in WWE, in general.”

During the interview, Gargano also discussed that he felt leaving WWE was in his best interest because he felt he had gotten stale being on TV for five to six years. “I kind of made my mind up a year in advance that this would be my last,” said Gargano.

“I wasn’t leaving to go to any particular place. I kind of just felt like I needed to go because I felt like if you watch a TV show or if you watch anything in general, if you see the same character – obviously, I changed character, I turned heel, I did funny stuff, I did things like that here and there – but if you see the same person on TV for five years, six years, it gets stale. I believe that being off TV and being away makes people miss you and I think people need to have a chance to miss you.”

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