Johnny Gargano is proud of being a mark

NXT part-timer, former Dragon Gate USA/EVOLVE champ and future Global Cruiserweight Series competitor Johnny Gargano has become quite the fan favorite over the course of his ten year pro wrestling career, and the Ohio native's recent interview with SI.com's Extra Mustard blog is a good example of why.

Obviously, that he's a pretty great pro wrestler who's earned the nickname "Johnny Wrestling" is part of it, but Gargano is also appealingly humble and not afraid to talk about being a fan of the industry he's making a living in:

We're all marks, to some extent. It's such a taboo term in this day and age to be a mark, but I wear it as a sense of pride.

Gargano's not afraid to let his fan-flag fly when asked to fantasy book a WrestleMania feud, either. Although he mentions his friend Kevin Owens as one potential partner, his top choice - and the story he'd tell - has it's basis in Johnny the "mark":

I was a big fan of Chris Jericho growing up, I looked up to him, I idolized him, my first concert was Fozzy and I only went to it because of Chris Jericho. So Chris Jericho is a guy who I kind of pattern my whole career off of, outside of Shawn Michaels. He was my inspiration, my go-to guy.

So, to be able to wrestle him would be an honor and a dream come true, and you can build the match up as such. You can show clips, kind of how when Chris Jericho wrestled Shawn Michaels. You showed how alike they were and you showed how Jericho idolized Shawn Michaels growing up and things like that. You can almost do the same thing for me and Chris Jericho.

So that would amazing for me because it would be a dream come true.

First things first, let's get Johnny Wrestling a push in NXT.

But then, I'm on board with a Jericho feud kicking off at Royal Rumble 2017. How bout y'all?