Johnny Gargano says WWE WrestleMania 40 is DIYs moment.
On the March 18 episode of WWE Raw, DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) defeated The Creed Brothers (Julius and Brutus Creed) to qualify for the Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder Match at WrestleMania 40.
Speaking on WWE's The Bump, Gargano discussed what earning the chance to compete at WrestleMania meant to him.
“Being able to sit back and watch that, and see the fans’ reactions, seeing them go crazy, and you always dream of that moment, of being able to be in that ring and point at that WrestleMania. You just pointing to it is whatever, but to be able to point to it and say, ‘I am finally having a match at WrestleMania,’ it just means the world to me. You said it, ten years. I had my first tryout here in 2015. I’ve done various things in this company for a very, very long time, but I’ve never been at WrestleMania. The fact that it’s finally happening, me and Tommaso Ciampa together, DIY, something we’ve always talked about, something we’ve always dreamed about, and the fact that it’s in Philadelphia, a city that has meant so much to my career. Takeover Philadelphia against Andrade, one of my most famous matches, we ain’t gonna talk about what happened afterward with Tommaso, but that’s a story in itself [laughs], but we have such a story in that city, and again, even before that, on the indies, I went to Philadelphia so many different times. To be able to make my WrestleMania debut, it’s perfect," Gargano said.
Later in the interview, Gargano commented on the other competitors in the match and spoke highly of them. He then stated that WrestleMania 40 was DIY's chance to solidify themselves by competing at WrestleMania and potentially winning the gold.
"The field itself, like right now, there’s so many great teams. Obviously, the Judgment Day, they are dominant in WWE. Awesome Truth, we have our history with them, we have an alliance with them. Also, you look at New Day. One of the last decorated tag teams…I’d say New Day and the Usos are probably 1A and 1B in the best tag teams in WWE history, so they are always the running, always gonna go for gold. I think it is our time now to solidify ourselves. We said this run is gonna be about our legacy. We have done amazing things in WWE. We have main-evented TakeOvers, made incredible moments, incredible memories. But we get a chance to wrestle on the grandest stage of them all. This is where you become legends. To be able to step on that stage in Philadelphia and get a chance at the WWE Tag Team Championship, to live that dream, we’ve never won a title here in Raw or SmackDown. Won many titles in NXT, never won one here. When we grew up, those were the titles we looked at. I said I wanted to be WWE Tag Team Champion, and the fact that I have a chance to make that happen at WrestleMania, we did the goosebumps thing, but that’s very real," Gargano said.
Gargano later reiterated that he had been dreaming of this opportunity, and he highlighted how special it was. He stated that it felt right and expressed how he and Ciampa believe that this is their moment and their time.
“I’ve been dreaming about this, we mentioned ten years, but this is really just a lifetime, a lifetime dream that we’re doing to accomplish. The fact that we get to wrestle at WrestleMania [for the] WWE Tag Team Championship, Tommaso is my best friend in the world, and the fact that the two of us have an opportunity to go there and make history and become the new WWE Tag Team Champions, just feels right. I feel like we have always talked about our moment. Me and Tommaso have always said, ‘This is gonna be our moment,’ it feels like genuinely right now, in this time, it is our moment," Gargano said.
Click here to see what Ciampa had to say about DIY qualifying for the Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder Match at WrestleMania 40.
Check out DIY's initial post-match comments about earning a spot in the ladder match here.
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