Johnny Gargano Discusses His Relationship With His Father, Saturday’s Takeover Being in Philadelphia, More

Johnny Gargano recently spoke with WWE.com, here are the highlights…

On Takeover Being in Philadelphia: It’s super cool. 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. That was for no money — just doing what I could to try and get people to know the name Johnny Gargano. I got a chance to main event the ECW Arena, and now I’m gonna main event the Wells Fargo Arena. That’s pretty wild to me.

On His Relationship With His Father: It’s at my house in Cleveland, hanging right by my TV. When I was little, I was kind of a chubby, shy, socially awkward kid, and to have that title, even though it didn’t “technically” mean anything, it meant a lot to me. It made me feel important, it made me feel special. That title meant a lot to me during a real difficult time for myself. I was just trying to figure out who I was and fit in with other kids. I was that kid who would go to school and just think about wrestling, and, back in that time period, that wasn’t really the coolest thing to do. Wrestling wasn’t really that cool to talk about, but that’s who I was, that’s what I liked, and I tried to stay true to myself. So, no matter what went down at school, whether I got picked on or somebody said something to me, I’d always go home and I’d always be happy because I’d play with my wrestling title, and I’d defend it against my stuffed animals or the friends I did have. Back then, for me, it was a ray of hope.

On His Father’s Health Issues: It was very scary for a little bit. My dad’s been sick for a while, and he’s very stubborn. He runs a catering company in Cleveland, and he’s the “I gotta go to work, no matter what, first and foremost”-type of guy. [Maybe] that’s where I get it my attitude, that no matter what’s going on, I’m gonna go to work and do what I can to get the job done. He put off having surgery for a while and then, a couple of weeks before Christmas, he was rushed to hospital and told, “You need this surgery.” It was kind of a whirlwind from there. He needed quadruple bypass surgery and a heart-valve replacement because his heart wasn’t operating that well. He’s 75 years old, so he’s a tad older. So, we found out he needed that surgery, and he still put it off. He wanted to have Christmas with us, just because you never know what can happen. I mean, in this day and age, open-heart surgery is somewhat common, but you still never know. All of Christmas Day, it was very stressful and tense because you could tell he just wasn’t himself and it was very touch-and-go. From his son, who has known him my whole life, it was like he was a different person. After we left that night, he got rushed to the hospital, and then they did the surgery two days later. Everything turned out well, everything is very positive. He just has to rest and recover.

On The Support of His Family: I can say that I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without the support from my parents. I was extraordinarily lucky in that sense. When I was younger, I actually stepped foot in a ring for the first time at 8 years old because of my dad. He knew I was such a big wrestling fan, and a local independent company asked him if they could run a show in the parking lot of his catering company. So, he was like, “Yeah, of course,” and before the show even started, they let me and my friend get in the ring and put on a match. So, I was 8 years old and I was able to get into the ring. For that match, my mom made me a costume that said “Italian Stallion JAG” on the vest, which is crazy to look back on that now because the “Italian Stallion” is, of course, Rocky Balboa, and we’re gonna be in Philadelphia [on Saturday], and everything is coming full circle. But yeah, they were incredibly supportive, and many, many times I put on shows in my living room where I would wrestle my stuffed elephant for that World Kid’s Championship. I give them a lot of credit because they sat there, and they watched it. They watched me beat up and have ladder matches with a stuffed elephant for that title, and they never complained once.