The news, broken on WWE Backstage last night (Nov. 12) and confirmed by the man himself this morning, that Johnny Gargano is injured and won’t be cleared in time to work TakeOver: WarGames or Survivor Series next weekend is a bummer. Just ask Gargano...
Full honesty.. I'm really proud of our team but sitting back and watching the NXT crew represent on RAW and Smackdown from the sidelines has been hard.
— Johnny Gargano (@JohnnyGargano) November 13, 2019
My silver lining was the hope I had that I'd be able to make it back for TakeOver.. but that's not the case.
I'm heartbroken. https://t.co/CF7hgv3xw1
The NXT Grand Slam champ looked to be on a collision course with Finn Bálor for the show on Sat., Nov. 23 in Rosemont, Illinois’ Allstate Arena. When Bálor attacked him as part of his heel turn, it looked like the set-up for a feud. And it probably still is. But for now, it was a way to write Johnny Wrestling off.
Gargano was also a logical fit as part of, and maybe even the captain of, NXT’s Men’s Survivor Series team. If that’s his role now, he’ll essentially be a manager. In-ring leadership will have to go to someone like Tommaso Ciampa or possibly Adam Cole.
The WWE roster is deep across all its brands, but Triple H’s show heads into next weekend pretty banged up. In addition to Gargano, we’ve no reason to believe Velveteen Dream or Kushida will be ready for action in Chicagoland.
With this being NXT’s big statement moment, where the show arrives on equal footing with Raw and SmackDown, it’s definitely a letdown to not have one of their signature Superstars available to wrestle.
We’ll see more of how they plan to work around that on their show tonight.