Former champion pushes for major title match at WWE SummerSlam
WWE SummerSlam 2024 is scheduled to take place on August 3 at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, the hometown of Johnny Gargano. The former NXT Champion recently expressed his desire to challenge for a major title at the premium live event.
The 36-year-old, along with his #DIY tag team partner Tommaso Ciampa, was drafted to Friday Night SmackDown during the 2024 Draft. The duo's most recent in-ring appearance was against the World Tag Team Champions Awesome Truth on the April 22 edition of Monday Night RAW in a title match. The closely contested bout saw the champions secure a win to retain their titles.
During a recent conversation with Mike Jones of DC 101, Gargano talked about the upcoming edition of SummerSlam scheduled to take place in his hometown. He mentioned Logn Paul and The Miz, two current champions who hail from Cleaveland as well. The former NXT Champion pointed out that his team with Ciampa has yet to win a title on the main roster:
"Logan Paul is the United States Champion and has been an incredible champion so far. Miz, us Cleveland guys, having a Cleveland showdown would be something special, but we just got drafted to SmackDown, and we have not gotten a shot at the WWE Tag Team Titles yet. We have not won a title yet on RAW or SmackDown. We said that was our goal for 2024," he said.
Johnny Gargano further expressed his desire to challenge for the WWE Tag Team Championship in front of his home crowd:
"If the stars were to align and me and Tommaso were to get a title match at SummerSlam for the Tag Team Titles, I want to put that out into the universe. To be able to have a title match at SummerSlam in Cleveland Browns stadium, with that crazy atmosphere. I can only imagine what the crowd would be like for that. It'd be something I would remember for a long time and the culmination of work if we were able to make that happen." [H/T: Fightful]
Johnny Gargano lost the final of recently concluded WWE tournament
The Stamford-based company announced WWE Speed, a show created exclusively for X/Twitter, earlier this year. The show started on April 3, 2024, with an eight-man tournament to determine the inaugural WWE Speed Champion.
Johhny Gargano faced Ricochet in a five-minute time-limit match in the final. The two performers put forth a fast-paced back-and-forth contest, which ended with the latter becoming the inaugural Speed Champion.
Johnny Gargano is one of the most decorated performers on the developmental brand. However, he has yet to win a championship after moving to the main roster.