"Everyone believed that" - Johnny Gargano explains why his WWE return did not happen in his hometown of Cleveland
Johnny Gargano is just one of several names brought back to WWE by Triple H after parting ways with the company under the previous regime.
Gargano made his return to the company on the August 22 episode of Monday Night RAW, which emanated from Toronto, Canada. While many were excited by his return, some fans questioned why he did not do so on the August 8 episode of RAW, which was shot in his hometown of Cleveland, OH.
The former NXT Champion recently appeared on WWE After the Bell podcast with Corey Graves, where he revealed that he wanted his return to be a total surprise, which he believes to be the reason he did not turn up in his hometown like many people expected.
"That was the most important thing to me for this secret, for this return, was to make it a complete surprise. Obviously, I could have come back two weeks prior in Cleveland, but everyone believed that. Everyone thought that was going to happen. That’s probably why it didn’t happen. It would have been great. I would love to come back to my hometown," said Johnny Gargano. [H/T: WrestleTalk]
Gargano also pointed out that when he became a fan during the Attitude Era, wrestlers would turn up anywhere without many people knowing, as wrestling journalism wasn't as popular back then.
Triple H kept Johnny Gargano's return a secret from company personnel
During the same interview, it was revealed that Johnny's return was kept a secret from many key personnel in WWE by Head of Creative Triple H.
Graves said that Gargano's return on the August 22 episode of RAW was even kept a secret from the commentators, who thought they were about to announce the arrival of Austin Theory before Johnny Gargano's music hit.
"I don’t know if you know this about how tightly-held the secret was regarding your return. We, the commentary team, had no actual definitive answers on anything. And as a matter of fact, on our truck sheets, the lineup as to what’s scheduled to come in the show, it just said Austin Theory. So I am fully expecting to go into full cheerleader mode for Mr. Money In The Bank Theory as a I do every week, and I see your name come across the tron. And if you notice, none of the three of us said a word, we just let it breath," said Corey Graves. [54:46 to 55:16]
Get ready for @JohnnyGargano's in-ring return tomorrow night on #WWERaw!
But who will his opponent be? 🤔
wwe.com/shows/raw/arti…
Johnny Gargano will be making his in-ring return on this week's RAW. Even though it is not known who he will be facing this week, it can be fairly assumed that his first feud will be against his former protege and Mr. Money in the Bank Austin Theory.
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