During his “What’s NeXT” panel at Starrcast V, former WWE NXT 2.0 Superstar Johnny Gargano commented on turning heel, how it was originally planned to be more serious, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the the panel below:
On how his heel turn was initially planned to be more serious: “At the early stages, when we were together, our characters were supposed to be completely different. We were supposed to be serious, like you were gonna get a whole different version of Johnny and Candice that you never got a chance to see.”
On how their characters were changed to focus more on entertaining the fans: “Yeah, a whole different dynamic you never got a chance to see. But when the pandemic happened, I kinda sat back and I was like man, there’s so much negativity right now in the world, and I know I’m a heel, but I want to do what I can to put a smile on people’s faces. I wanna make people laugh and smile and be entertained during this time period. That’s why we focused more on the entertainment than on the pure being a heel aspect.”
On showing Indi Hartwell and Theory on how to have fun: “Our goal ultimately, because I kinda knew that maybe I was reaching the end of that current run of me there, with Austin and Indi, I think we did, like I think they have so much more confidence now, so much more character. They’re way more confident in front of a camera because they got that experience with us. They kinda just learned this is supposed to be fun, so you gotta have fun with it.”
On being the straight man in the group: “Impossible. I never want to be the straight man in the group ever, ever again for the rest of my life. Especially Indi and Theory are hilarious. There was a day, I think we must have been in commercial break, and Indi was heartbroken, and I was looking in the ring, and I turn around, and no joke, she’s laying on the ring stairs like this [mimics lying on the stairs]. I don’t know how I’m supposed to be serious in that moment. They would do it backstage, like we’d be doing like a backstage promo and these guys are fighting up here, and there’s all this chaos happening, and she just kept going for Dexter, and I had to turn around and laugh so many times. If you go back and watch any of that stuff, if you see me like this at any moment, it’s because I’m laughing.”
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