7-25-24 - Rick Ucchino with Johnny Gargano

Johnny Gragano talks Summerslam being in his home town of Cleveland.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
ESPN fifteen to thirty, Cincinnati's Sportsstation. Here we go our number three,
Rich Pontino, filling in for Mowegeron ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.
And you guys had to know thiswas coming. If I was on
the air, I was going tofind a way to get some wrestling conversation

(00:24):
into the mix. And when theopportunity comes along to chat with one of
the best to ever lace up apair of boots from the great state of
Ohio, especially with SummerSlam and Clevelandnext weekend, I was not going to
pass up that opportunity. Joining menow one half of the new WWDE Tag
Team Champions. He is Johnny Gargano. Joarney, thank you so much for
the time. Man. How's itgoing. I'm doing great, Rick,

(00:46):
how about you? I am hangingin there. It is a Thursday afternoon.
Training camp is in full swing.Now that's gonna be a you know,
hopefully big seasons for both of ourour teams, which we'll talk about
here coming up in in a littlebit. But this is a big month,
big weekend for the state of Ohiocoming up. You've had a good
run here in WWE as of lateit was two years ago when you returned

(01:08):
to the company, almost to theday. Here took a little bit of
a hiatus, you know, fromthe company. You said you came back
because you had a number of bucketlist items that you needed to cross off.
Two of those things have come tofruition this year, your first WrestleMania
match and now winning the WWE TagTeam Championships. If nothing else, getting

(01:30):
to have those experiences, do theycompletely validate this decision to come back to
WWE. I think so. It'stough because I'm not one of those people
that like live in a moment andnot someone that like appreciate things as they're
here. I'm always like, Okay, what's next, where we go now?
But being able to look back atthe past couple months, to be
able to be on WrestleMania, tobe the current Theory Tag Team Champions as

(01:53):
we're heading into probably the biggest weekendin Cleveland wrestling history, is so freaking
cool. Man. I'm extremely lucky, extremely blessed to be in a position
I'm in and we're just getting started, though we're far from done. Now.
You capture the belts in the samebuilding that you and your tag team
partner Tomasso Champa won the NXT TagTeam Championships. It's the same building you

(02:16):
made your wwe return in and we'retalking about the Scotia Banksason. They're trying
to we have Sciota here in Ohio. I'm trying to make sure I say
the Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto.And it makes me think of, like,
you know, other sports, likefor example, Joe Burrow, Jamar
Chase in the super Dome. There'smagic there, right. Bill Hall,

(02:36):
good player for the Brewers for awhile, but always seem to just absolutely
Rake when he came to Great AmericanBallpark and played against the Reds. Is
it very common for a wrestler tohave that same thing where you just notice
something special about a certain venue andyou know there's the ability for magic to
be made when you walk into thedoors. I don't know. I can't
think of any other aspects for that'sactually happened. I think just we're living

(02:58):
in a time period where long termstories are to be told now and history
is not being forgetten like forgotten,I should say history is being embraced.
History is a part of where we'vecome from, so to be able to
go back to the same but againI couldn't have It's not like we planned
this, It's not like this waswritten this way. It just ended up

(03:21):
working out where timeline wise, wewon the NFT tag titles in Toronto,
then I come back in that samebuilding in Toronto. I was like,
Oh, that's pretty cool, andlike when that was all about, I
was thinking like, oh, Toronto, like we want the tag titles,
that'd be cool to come back there. And then literally like there was coming
up on the schedule where we werein the midst of being against Austin and

(03:43):
Grayson and this sewed and we werecoming up, and then like a big
payer view was going to be inthat building as well, and it just
ended up working out like it justhappens. Sance Man I liked say,
we planned all this, It justit's happening on a month to month basis
that it's just worked out extremely wellfor us getting to go on this run
here, you know, with TomasoChampla, finally having you know, DIY
be successful on the main roster todo this with him. How much has

(04:06):
has that meant to you? Howextra special has that been? It's meant
the world you know, we aretwo guys who were basically told no at
our tryout, told that there wasno spot for us in NXC. We
had a small opportunity in the DustyRose Tack Team Classic, and then we
kicked the door down. We saidthere is no no anymore. We're going
to take this place over. AndI remember being on like the minimum and

(04:30):
in NXT salary when we moved toOrlando and it was me Tomaso on campus,
living in like a two bedroom apartmentin Orlando, Florida, and we
would talk about this. We talkabout this moment we're currently living in.
Obviously, being the NFC Tag TeamChampions was awesome, That's what we wanted,
but we always talked about one day, what would happen if Dy was

(04:51):
on a ra or a SmackDown.Could we climb that mountain and become the
w B Tag Team Champions. Andthe fact that we were able to make
it happen, Zach, we're livingin that reality and the fact that me
and him have been through so muchtogether on and off screen is just so
freaking cool. We're able to makethis happen. And you guys have been
showing off a bit of your comedicchops online as well recently out of Nowhere

(05:15):
at that you've been doing with withRandy Orton. Where did what's the origin
story behind these that you guys aredoing out there? Yeah, so obviously
everyone knows our history with the GloriousPomp, the videos we used to do
with Bobby Rude in NXT where wewould basically play his song. We'd find
him in awkward situations and we wouldjust look raise the camera, play a

(05:40):
song, nod now his back.Those were very, very popular, and
I would honestly attribute those to maybedi I wise based popular, like we
were popular had the starten in thatNXT. But I feel like the Glorious
Bomb kind of took us to wholenew heights, to so a whole new
level when those started coming out,and people still talk about them to this
day. So we were kind ofjust looking for a new twenty twenty four

(06:04):
version of that. We didn't wantto do go back to doing the same
old thing. There's something I liketo call the DIYCU, the diy Cinematic
University, and we were like,what can we do to kind of take
this thing at the next level?And obviously, how do you take it
to the next level. You getRandy freaking Orton, one of the greatest

(06:27):
of all time, to be inthese videos and that, you know,
that just speaks to look and inreality, Randy has no idea we're doing
this. They're just me and Tomorrows. As you can watch the videos,
we're still trying our tale. Ithink he's still oblivious to the fact that's
happening, but I think he doesn'teven know his mouse is going after him.
Still, maybe he'll realize that oneday. We're not sure. But

(06:50):
again, long term shorytelling guys,you got stay tuned to see what happens.
I'm looking forward to the to thenext installment for sure. It's been
a few days since since we've gottenone. Johnny mcgardano, My god,
what, no worry, Okay,there's a weekly it's a weekly thing.
No worry, okay, all right, I'm looking forward to it. I
can't wait. Johnny Gargano my guesthere on the ESPN fifteen thirty. I'm

(07:10):
Recugino filling in for Moegar SummerSlam nextweekend already Cleveland Brown Stadium. Johnny as
someone who has actively been campaigning fora major wwepl to take place in my
hometown of Cincinnati, going so faras to call county and city city leaders
and pitching my case. Hopefully Iwas vicariously through you here. Just how

(07:35):
exciting is it to see your city, your hometown, have the opportunity to
get this national spotlight and be thishost to a major WWE event. It's
so freaking cool, man. I'msure you guys feel the same way in
Cincinnati. I'm sure Cincinnati gets abad rap. I'm sure a lot of
people are like, well, Cincinnati, why would you go there? Like
the same thing like Cleveland, whywould you go there? Like? The

(07:56):
thing I'm most looking boring to islike all these people from coming from all
over the world old to Cleveland,Ohio, and people that are like,
why are we going to Cleveland?Then they come to Cleveland and they realize
it's a beautiful city show with beautifulpeople an amazing things to do. Because
that's what's going to happen, Ipromise you. But the fact that it's
going to Cleveland Brown Stadium, abuilding I pretty much have been in almost

(08:18):
every Sunday for a good majority ofmy life. You guys, said the
Browns weren't great for a lot ofmy childhood. So I would always sit
up in the noseleaed section and Iwould daydream in the fourth quarter while we
were down by like four touchdowns,like, man, it'd be really cool
if like a big w event camehere. That will never happen though,

(08:39):
it's just it will never happen,like we're outside, it'll never go down.
And then I remember, as Ihave a lot of friends that work
for the Cleveland Browns, they toldme, maybe like over a year ago,
we're trying to get summer slim,and I was like, oh my
god, that'd be so freaking cool. I think I believe I might have
been the first talent to know,oh that Cleveland was gonna get summerslun So

(09:03):
the fact that it's actually happening andit's almost like it's next next weekend,
it's so freaking cool. Man.Yeah, we we've probably been to some
of the same games because my dadwas from Cleveland and he never wanted to
go to like the home game,so we always drove to the Bengals Browns
road games. Uh, And thatwas always yeah, oh yeah, yeah,
And like at least he was smart, right, like he protected me

(09:24):
like he bought me a Dennis Nordcut jersey. So I was like a
Bengals fan cognito, uh, sittingin the stands, like quietly sirving for
my team while wearing a Dennis Nordcut jersey. So it was a little
confusing for the people. Goods,that's a good jersey though, That's that's
a good vintage jersey. Good widereceiver. Man. I still have it.
I'll have to get you to signit one of these days. But
yeah, so yeah, please,It's funny. Cleveland Brown Stadium is one

(09:48):
of the Man, it might beonly the second stadium that I've seen an
NFL game in. I spend mostof my Sundays at pay Corps here in
Cincinnati, but a majority of theNFL game the NFL stadium I've been to
have now been for pls because they'vebeen doing these these big stadium shows,
and it's very similar to what yousaid. SummerSlam last year was my first
time ever going to Detroit, andI never really kind of got that,

(10:11):
like any anything good about Detroit.I never heard, like the only thing
I knew about Detroit was like allthe slum parts that they showed in like
Beverly Hills, talk like that's allI knew about Detroit, right, And
then I go there and I'm like, oh, this is just like a
big Cincinnati. This is so damnbeautiful up here. It was such a
great city and such a great experience. Now I've been to Cleveland obviously,
as I just said, but yeah, that's that's what I want for Cincinnati.

(10:33):
I want people to come to Cincinnatiand realize, you know, how
great this city is. And I'mso jealous of the city of Cleveland for
forgetting this. But hopefully if Ikeep calling Hamilton County, they'll they'll get
it done and get something here,uh, in the in the few years.
I mean, Joe Burrow obviously wantsit. He's doing Cody r was
cosplay, So I mean Joe Burrow'sready for it. Yes, and maybe
this is the year the Bengals willfinish the story. But you know,

(10:58):
I think it give you Wrestlingia thirtynine, Oh god, please, No,
we already had that in the Supertwo years ago. We already got
so but you know, getting backto you know, this is already a
stack car. There's I think sevenmatches confirmed for the show. That's a
lot for a triple h led ple. Yeah, are you going to

(11:20):
get the wrestle on the field downthere? Are we gonna get? Yeah?
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. And it's
one of those things where, look, I'm just happy doing anything. I
want to do anything in that stadium. I don't care what it is.
I just want to do something inthat stadium. It's like a lifelong dream
of mine. So whether it's defendingthe tag team titles or just popping out

(11:41):
and waving too the crowd, Idon't care. I just want to do
something wrestling related in that stadium.And I will I will, I will
die happy. Well, it's beena great year for Cleveland so far,
Guardians, you know, putting togetherquite the year. They're twenty games over
five hundred right now, they're infirst place. Some slame next weekend,
like I said, But Johnny,I know you're just as excited as I

(12:01):
am. Football right around the corner. Training camp is underway for all thirty
two teams. How are you feelingwith the Browns this year? Every time
I talk to MS, he saysthey're going to win the Super Bowl.
Do you have the same rose coloredprescription of course that he does. Of
course I'm optimistic. Yeah, theBrowns are gonna win the Super Bowl.
Literally the day after Summer Slam,Cleveland Brown's training camp. I will be
there. I'm going. That justshows you where I'm at. I'm ready

(12:26):
to rock and roll. I'll beat Clean Brownse training camp day after Summer
Slam to support my team. Imean, so, who's the biggest threat
in the Ansty North and why isit the Cleveland Nightmare Joe Burrow in the
Cincinnati Bengals. I mean, how'sJoe Burrow played against Miles Garrett the past
couple? How do you do lastyear? Yeah? I don't know,
man. Maybe maybe it's blonde hairand he's ready to go. He's ready

(12:48):
to have an MVP. Maybe younever know if it's risk holds together.
Jesus, just be healthy, That'sall I asked. Just who is he
ever going to be healthy playing againstMiles Garrett two times a year? Just
saying, I mean, they gotthe dudes offensive line six eight, three
hundred pounds they've invested. Hopefully theycan learn how to freaking block this year.
That would be great. Final questionfor you there's a lot to be
excited about. I know you're abig comic book guy. Where's the incitement

(13:13):
level for Deadpool Wolverine this weekend?Oh? I'm so freaking excited, so
excited to the point where I hadno idea where I was going to be
on the night it came out onThursday night. I didn't know if I
was going to be in San Diegofor santy Yo Comic Con, if I
was going to be doing madel stuff. I don't know if I was going
to be in Cleveland, which Iam currently, and I kN know if
I was going to be in Orlando. So did I buy tickets in three

(13:35):
different states for this movie? Yes? I have tickets in three different states
currently for this movie. So that'show excited I am. But I am
seeing it in Cleveland. So somany cameo rumors. Is there one in
particular that you want to see inthis movie? Oh, it's tough.
Obviously, I'm a big X Menguy, so I would like to see

(13:56):
some form of the ninety seven Xmetish. I know there's there's rumors of,
like, you know, Channing Tatumis Gambit or like things like that.
Obviously, like I'm always just XMen guy, but I'm also a
big Spider Man guy, and TobyMaguire is my Spider Man from when I
was growing up, and like,I don't know, the final trailer,

(14:18):
Deadpool was doing the fifth flip flipFlip, So maybe a Spider Man shows
up. We'll see. I'm justexcited to see you, man, I
might. I think he's been alot of fun and I think that,
uh, anything is possible. It'slike anything's possible in the Death whole Universal.
He Yeah, I was gonna say, you said the one that I
wanted because Gambit was always my dudegrowing up. And I'm remember I remember

(14:41):
when the two thousand Spider Man movieor the X Men movie came out,
and I'm like, oh, Ican't wait to see who plays Gambit.
And then he never showed up.And then he never showed up in two,
and he never showed up in XY, and then ever since,
like the rumors about Channing Tatum gettingcast as Gambit and then watching him in
Hateful Eight, I'm like, oh, this is a match made in heaven,
Like we got to get this sothat that's the one. I'm I'm

(15:01):
really hoping for I'm going for barely. He really loves the character as well,
so I'm excited to see if thatactually does happen, what he's able
to do. There's a lot tobe excited about him going Friday afternoon.
I can't wait. Can't wait tobe in Cleveland. I've never said that
sentence before, but I can't waitto be in Cleveland next weekend for Summer
Slam. Thank you so much forthe time, Johnny. I really appreciate
it. Thanks man anytime. Allright, there you go, Johnny Gargana,

(15:22):
one half the WWE Tag Team championsTerror Are you going to Cleveland next
weekend? I will be in Clevelandnext weekend. That makes two of us.
I am, I am. I'mvery excited. This is an extraordinarily
stacked card. I don't know ifJohnny's gonna get on the show. It's
gonna be interesting. I would bepre show right at least maybe, I
don't know. I mean, tomorrownight on SmackDown, they're going to determine

(15:45):
number one contenders for the tag teamtitles. It doesn't look like mis is
going to be doing anything. Ithought maybe at least he'd host it or
something, but I mean MS ismaking a cameo somewhere. I think they
all are. I think they allare at some point. Maybe. Oh,
how about Live out of Nowhere skith Randy Orton's kind of written off
as a character. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know.

(16:06):
You know, it's gonna be interesting. But I'm looking forward to him
something like Truth's got to think he'sin Cincinnati or something. Ah, that
would be hilarious. That'd be hilarious. Truth is great. Yeah. I
will be there next weekend covering itfor Espnation, maybe another couple of outlets
you can get all my wrestling coverage. I did write up a little bit
earlier today for Espnation caage site seatsdot com from that Johnny Gargano interview.

(16:26):
Uh, you can follow all thatgood work on on my Twitter page or
x app, whatever you want tocall it these days, rick Yucchino,
say that again. I'll wave toyou in the press box. There you
go. Yeah. Yeah. Althoughit's it's summertime, like, those press
boxes come in handy, especially inPhiladelphia when it was like forty degrees outside,
those press boxes come in handy.I think I'd rather be outside honestly,
for for Summer Slam weekend, wegot a lot to dive into rick

(16:48):
Uccino here filling in for Moegger today. We're gonna hear from Zach Taylor next
actually because we we we got alittle bit of details behind why Jamar Chase
wasn't practicing today day to a trainingcamp, but it's really not going to
answer any of the questions that wehave that coming up next to ESPN fifteen thirty