Johnny Gargano Talks About Possibly Retiring From Wrestling At 40

In an interview with Chris Van Vliet’s Insight podcast (via Fightful), Johnny Gargano said that there is part of him that wants to retire from wrestling when he turns 40 in six years. Here are highlights:

On his future in wrestling: “I’m always going to love wrestling. I’m always going to want to be part of wrestling in same, way, shape, or form. That’s just who I am. I’m Johnny Wrestling for a reason, I guess. It’s really interesting because I’ve done wrestling stuff for 16 years, who am I outside of wrestling. It’s the time period now where I’m gonna try to answer that existential question in my life. The name Johnny Gargano when I’m wrestling is always going to be beneficial, money-wise. You’re always going to want to see me wrestle, want to learn from me. In reality, I have a job for life. I can go be a producer, be a coach, I can train people.”

On if the door is open to return to WWE: “Yes, I hope so. I assume. I have a great relationship with everyone there and I’m very lucky that I have that. That’s always in the back of my mind of what I’m going to do after wrestling. There is a big part of me that says I only want to wrestle until I’m 40 and that’s only six years away at this point. I feel I only have five years left to really maximize whatever I’m going to do in this.”

On making a decision on where to go: “That’s the thing I struggle with the most. If I want to do Indies again or AEW or IMPACT or ROH or back to WWE. My dream growing up was wrestle in WWE and wrestle at WrestleMania, be WWE Champion. That was always my dream and is still is my dream. There are also things that change those dreams, like having a baby, wanting to be home more. There are a lot of things I’m juggling right now with legacy mixed with being a good dad mixed with how I maximize the time I have left. There are a lot of questions I have to answer and I don’t know what that is yet, I’m just hoping that as this plays out, the right answer and right path will show itself to me. My options are 100% open. I watch everything. I don’t know really where I fit in right now in the wrestling landscape. I also feel like the wrestling landscape changes on, not just a monthly, but a weekly basis. Especially this current time period. You never know what’s going to happen next. It’s one of those things where, a new company could pop up, this person could be in charge, AEW is doing this, ROH is doing this, NXT is doing this. It literally changes on a weekly basis. I feel like I’m in a good position to sit back, view everything outside the bubble, and figure out the best fit for me because I don’t really know where I fit in.”

On if he still wants to wrestle at Wrestlemania: “Of course, I definitely do. I don’t know when that’ll come, if that’ll come. I have a great relationship there, but I have to figure out what’s going to be worth it for me. What sacrifices am I going to have to make, to make that happen? Especially now with Quill being born. I don’t want to miss this time. Me and Candice talk about that a lot when I’m thinking about my decision. I would hate to be on the road constantly and miss his first words or him walking for the first time. I want to be there for those moments because we’re only planning on having one. I have one shot at seeing all this, living this part of my life and if we have one life, I want to enjoy as much as I can of this moment. It’s going to be a moment where, I don’t know when or know where, I’m going to feel like, ‘It’s the right time to go,’ I guess we’ll figure that out along the way.”