The Rise Of Triple H | Wrestling Timelines
August 22, 2024 - Nobody Speak
Fightful Wrestling posts ‘On This Day’ content to X, reminding their followers that Johnny Gargano had made his unannounced return to WWE on August 22, 2022. He had previously let his contract expire.
Journalist David Bixenspan - known for his inquisitiveness and investigative deep-dives - quotes the post, writing:
“So, just for the record, are we still pretending that all of the Levesque guys & gals who were fired or let their contracts lapse but didn’t go anywhere for months & months, only to return when he got control, WEREN’T given a heads up that he was in the process of staging a coup?”
Very well-connected and prolific scoopster Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful replies to Bixenspan’s post: “I wouldn’t say they were given that specific heads up, but many were told to wait to sign somewhere else.”
This is the closest anybody has publicly come to even talking around the notion that - how to put it? - Vince’s exit from WWE worked out rather well for Paul Levesque.
Bixenspan raises an interesting point; of all the “Levesque guys & gals”, Gargano, who went 260 days between WWE appearances, is the sort of wrestler AEW founder and President Tony Khan would sign. Gargano is technically skilled, vastly experienced, and shows willingness to do jobs. He is an ideal candidate for AEW’s upper midcard.
And, since Gargano was available immediately and for much of 2022…why didn’t Khan sign him? It’s not as if Tony has ever shown any discipline when adding depth to his talent roster. He adds several names during that time period, in fact.
Perhaps Gargano fancied a long vacation.