Athlete Interview: Johnny Gargano: NXT Superstar, Collector – When a child collector becomes an athlete later in life, they’ll often take their hobby memories with them and apply it to their attitude toward cards and collectibles. One such personality is Johnny Gargano.
For those not familiar, Gargano is one of the leading names in WWE’s NXT brand. Thus far in his career, he has carried the NXT Championship once, the NXT Tag Team Championship once and the NXT North American Championship three times, including as the current title holder. He has had incredible matches throughout his career against the likes of Andrade and his one-time tag partner Tommaso Ciampa (listen to the full interview below for more on his relationship with Ciampa).
Gargano grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and like many his age (33), he had three main pursuits. “I was such a big collector when I was younger, whether it was baseball cards, football cards, Pokemon cards or anything like that,” he says.
Gargano has kept up his collection, however, as well as his loyalty to the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. This, unfortunately, has come with its consequences. “I’m embarrassed. I’m ashamed of how many rookie cards I have of first overall draft picks or rookie quarterbacks of the Browns that didn’t pan out,” he admits. “I have plenty of Brady Quinn, plenty of Charlie Frye, things like that that I collected when I was younger.”
Those, perhaps understandably, don’t rank as his favorites from outside the squared circle. Instead, his primary collecting focus was on a certain Seattle Mariner’s first North American cardboard. “I really wanted an Ichiro rookie card when I was super young. Ichiro was super hot during that time,” he says. “I ended up getting a box of cards for Christmas and I ended up pulling the Ichiro Suzuki rookie card. I still have that. It’s such a great feeling to open a pack of cards and get the one you want.”
Because of his roots in the hobby, Gargano likes to have fun when he sits down to sign a fresh batch of cards, be it for a Topps set or a card that has been sent to him from a collector.
“My favorite number is seven, so sometimes I’ll do a special signature on the number seven card. I’ll write “Johnny Wrestling” or “Johnny TakeOver” on that one as an Easter Egg for collectors,” he says. “I appreciated that when I was younger and getting to do that now is pretty cool.”
Because NXT has become so beloved by fans for its high octane action and deep storylines, the black-and-gold brand has been recognized by Topps with its own products over the years, including next Wednesday’s release. Gargano is featured in a 20-card retrospective of his career in NXT thus far (see below for your exclusive first look at cards from the set!).
And if anyone will be the first to get all 20 cards, along with its autographed parallels, it will be someone close to Gargano’s heart.
“My mom collects all my cards,” he admits. “She hits eBay and tries to buy all of my cards. I’ll say ‘I can try to get them for you,’ but she says, ‘no, I want to try and find them.'”
Gargano has a large number of his cards as well and enjoys seeing the collectibles as they come out; but there’s one that sticks out among the many that he’s seen over the years. “One that I just signed recently that I was a big fan of was a card that had a piece of the mat from my match at TakeOver: New York with Adam Cole,” he comments. “I remember I had a Shawn Michaels WrestleMania XII collectible plaque that had a piece of the canvas from when he won the (WWE) Title; so for me to have a trading card like that – that has a piece of the mat from when I won the (NXT) Title is pretty cool, so right now it’s my favorite.”
Listen to the full interview with Johnny Gargano below. Gargano goes into greater depth about his collection and career. Topics include his rivalry with Tommaso Ciampa, his wife, Candice LeRae, his current run as a heel (bad guy) in NXT and his anticipation for performing in front of fans again.
Athlete Interview: Johnny Gargano: NXT Superstar, Collector – Image Gallery
Athlete Interview: Johnny Gargano: NXT Superstar, Collector
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