Johnny Gargano has always had a special connection with Shawn Michaels.
Gargano became the first NXT Triple Crown Champion in WWE NXT under the leadership of Michaels and Triple H. Though Gargano left WWE in December 2021, he remains one of the faces of NXT's black-and-gold era.
During the "What's NeXt?" stage show at Starrcast V, co-host Kenny McIntosh brought up how Michaels is often referred to as Gargano's wrestling dad. The forner NXT Champion responded by bringing up how he dressed up as "The Heartbreak Kid" for Halloween and likely garnered some dirty looks toward his mom for letting him dress up like a "male stripper."
"I bought that man cookies for his birthday. What does that tell you? People clapping for me buying Shawn Michaels cookies for his birthday? There you go. Shawn Michaels was painted on my wall as a child. He was painted on my wall. I used to dress like Shawn Michaels for Halloween, a couple years in a row. Think about that for a minute. I always say, if you’re a wrestling fan, you see this little eight-year-old kid walking around dressed like Shawn Michaels, 'That’s Shawn Michaels, that’s awesome. That eight-year-old kid’s dressed like Shawn Michaels. That is awesome.' If you are not a wrestling fan, if you are just a random human and you see a little eight-year-old [dressed like that], you’re like, ‘Why are these parents letting this little eight-year-old kid dress like a male stripper?’ My mom had to get some dirty looks, I’m sure, because she made the costume as well," Gargano said.
Years later, Gargano worked alongside Michaels in NXT, and he even dressed like the legend with some tribute gear at NXT Takeover: In Your House 2021. He emphasized how learning from the legend was an "incredible asset" and stated that both Michaels and Triple H are his wrestling dads.
"To go from that to him being my NXT dad, being my wrestling dad, him and Hunter are my wrestling dads, is literally wild. It remember when he started in NXT and Shawn started coming around more, he was dipping his toes into maybe helping around NXT a bit, helping out with Hunter. I remember me and Tommaso were walking down a hallway in the Performance Center, and we saw Shawn standing there, and we’re like, ‘We’re not ready to say hi to him yet, we’re not ready to say hi to him yet.’ So we like ran [away] because for my money, he’s the greatest to ever do. I know that’s an opinion-based thing, but for my money, Shawn Michaels is the greatest to ever do it, and to have the greatest to ever do it in my back pocket whenever I need an opinion on something or whenever I need advice, it’s just such an incredible asset to have, him and Hunter both," he said.
During the show, Gargano also looked back on his classic NXT storyline with Ciampa. You can check out his comments here.
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