Johnny Gargano Hopes To Win The NXT Title Again: ‘I Just Want The Ball’
Photo Credit: WWE
This week on WWE NXT, Johnny Gargano will challenge Karrion Kross for the NXT Championship. Ahead of the bout, in an interview with Rick Ucchino of Sportskeeda Wrestling, Gargano explained how it makes sense that fans have rallied behind him during his feud with Kross, as the NXT Champion is the brand’s “big bad.” He noted how the return of live fans has also facilitated this response.
“I think it’s a unique environment because now we have a live crowd again, and you have to think, my whole run as a heel, we haven’t had a crowd,” said Gargano. “Immediately, when I turned, everything went down, and I’ve been a heel for basically a year and a half now. But we haven’t had fans, so now the fans are back, and obviously, I’m very lucky that people seem to enjoy my work and people seem to enjoy me.
“It’s really interesting now to watch the show and see guys like Adam Cole get cheered, see Tommaso [Ciampa] get cheered, see me here cheered. And I think it might just come down to, like we’ve been the faces of NXT for a long time, we’ve killed ourselves for that brand to try to put that brand on the map, and I think people just really respect what we’ve done…. It does make sense, obviously, for me going against Karrion Kross, who is the big bad. He is the big boss at the end of the video game. He’s unbeatable, he’s unstoppable, for me to kind of go into that underdog Johnny Wrestling role.”
Gargano also described that he wants another run as the NXT Champion because he didn’t get a lengthy reign the first time around.
“I just feel like I have another run in me,” said Gargano. “I feel like, kinda in the same regard as the North American Championship, where I just want the ball. And that might just be me in my competitive nature where I always want the ball. But I guess it makes sense, given the Johnny Wrestling story, the Johnny Wrestling arc, that he fought so hard to get the title, he finally got the title and then obviously Adam Cole took it from him.
“So story-wise, it makes tons of sense. But personally me being the guy that I am, I want the ball, man, and I want to be able to have the run that I would like to have with it.”
The full video is available here:
RELATED: Johnny Gargano: I’m On The Best Run of My Career With NXT’s Sitcom, The Way