The life of a professional wrestler can be a strange one, just ask Johnny Gargano.
The former NXT Champion has wrestled all over the world in packed-out arenas and in tiny sports gyms. However, during his rise to WWE, the star also performed in a slightly more unusual location.
Speaking during an appearance on the Beat of Sports, Gargano revealed that he has wrestled in a prison. Although unlike WWE’s resident reformed convict Dominik Mysterio, Gargano wasn’t serving hard time.
“I (wrestled in) an actual prison. Before my time in WWE, I was an independent wrestler, so I would wrestle on a bunch of random shows here and there. They had a show booked in a prison. I’ve wrestled multiple times in prisons, which is a wild crowd. Wild environment. They ran a wrestling show in the middle of the yard where they had all their activities and stuff like that. ‘Hey, come watch a wrestling show,’ and we wrestled in a prison. It was wild,”
Where Did Johnny Gargano Wrestle Before WWE?
Johnny Gargano began his career back in 2005 and featured regularly for the likes of PWG, Evolve, and Chikara. Johnny Wrestling made his way to WWE and NXT in 2015 initially working without a contract. He went on to become one of the most popular stars in the history of the ‘Black and Gold brand’ before allowing his contract to expire in December 2021.
While with NXT, Gargano became the show’s first-ever Triple Crown Champion winning the NXT, North American, and Tag Team Titles.
Gargano returned to WWE in August 2022, this time as part of Monday Night Raw. The star was most recently in action on the January 30th episode of the red brand where he defeated Baron Corbin to qualify for the men’s Elimination Chamber match at the event of the same name. On February 18th, Gargano will take on Damian Priest, Bronson Reed, Montez Ford, Seth Rollins, and Austin Theory as he tries to claim the United States Title.
H/t to Fightful