After wrestling his first match in nine months, Johnny Gargano has detailed the body transformation he went through to get back in ring shape.

Gargano made his return to the ring by defeating Chad Gable on Raw last night. Gargano then made an Instagram post on Tuesday describing his process of getting back into shape.

Gargano wrote that he “wanted a complete mental and physical break from everything that [he] correlated with wrestling” during his time away, which included dieting and training. The thing he looked forward to the most during that time was being able to eat without being judged. He ate anything he wanted, but eventually Gargano missed being dialed in and food wasn’t special to him anymore.

Though he didn’t know where he would be making his return, Gargano decided in April that it was time to get back to work and get back in shape.

“I’m FAR from a finished product and I’m hoping to grow and improve more and more as these months go on. I’m never going to be the biggest guy and I’m positive this post will have trolls that are offended by my existence that say I’m still ‘too small’ but it is what it is and I’m working with what I got and I’m trying to make the best of it. I train extremely hard and my body type unfortunately is what it is. I’m sincerely trying my best to be the best version of myself daily,” Gargano wrote.

“This is the result of around 16 weeks of work. Coming back from in my opinion.. the worst I’d looked or felt in 18 years. My message here being.. you can 100% do this too. Wherever you’re at in your life you can always make a change for something more. I know that first step is scary but attack it with everything you got. What you want could only be 5 months away!”

Gargano’s full post is available below:

Long post incoming. I was a little apprehensive to share this at first as I’m very on record of my history with body dysmorphia as I was a chubby kid growing up so posting these pictures is a tad embarrassing (which I’m sure shocks you as 75% of my photos are in little wrestling gear). I’m still far from happy with how I look but maybe in sharing this it can spark something in others and normalize this discussion.

When I left wrestling in December I decided I wanted a complete mental and physical break from everything that I correlated with wrestling. Diet and training goes hand in hand with that to me. It’s unfortunately a cosmetic business and a part of the job. I’ve been ‘dieting and training’ (probably horribly wrong my first 10 years) for my entire wrestling career. That’s almost 18 years. I grew incredibly tired of it and didn’t enjoy it. My inner fat kid missed being able to eat whatever I wanted without counting macros or ‘planning a cheat day’ and then feeling guilty and feeling gross half naked on TV. It was a vicious cycle that gave me a horrible relationship with food. The thing I looked forward to the most being off.. was being able to eat and not being judged.

In the same way I wanted to miss wrestling.. I wanted to miss diet and exercise. In hopes that my passion would reignite and when I was ready to come back I could be completely re-energized and attack this thing with everything I got. To be the best version of myself possible. From December to April.. I ate anything I wanted daily! Me and Candice (pregnant for a few of those months) tore up Uber Eats! It was great! I wanted to go full ‘Dad Bod’ and I did! I trained here and there but with no rhyme or reason. As the months went on though.. it turned out like I hoped.. Food wasn’t special anymore. I missed being dialed in.. and having abs.

So in April I decided I wanted to get to work. I didn’t know where or when I was coming back but I wanted to get ready and I knew it would take time given the damage I did. How my career ended up was out of my control but the thing I could control is the work I put in and how I looked when the time came.

I hit up AJ (@cementfactory) who has had tremendous success with a lot of my colleagues and we divised a plan. I’ve done tons of different diets but the wizardry that AJ pulls off is absolutely unbelievable. I’m eating cookies and burgers and fries and humongous bowls of sugary cereal 2 times a week. I’m never starving like I have been in the past during my TakeOver preps when I’d be on like 1600 calories a day and miserable. It’s truly a gift and has completely changed my life. This is a fully sustainable diet that let’s me stay in shape but also be well fed.

I’m FAR from a finished product and I’m hoping to grow and improve more and more as these months go on. I’m never going to be the biggest guy and I’m positive this post will have trolls that are offended by my existence that say I’m still ‘too small’ but it is what it is and I’m working with what I got and I’m trying to make the best of it. I train extremely hard and my body type unfortunately is what it is. I’m sincerely trying my best to be the best version of myself daily.

This is the result of around 16 weeks of work. Coming back from in my opinion.. the worst I’d looked or felt in 18 years. My message here being.. you can 100% do this too. Wherever you’re at in your life you can always make a change for something more. I know that first step is scary but attack it with everything you got. What you want could only be 5 months away!

Gargano and Candice LeRae welcomed their first child, a boy named Quill, into the world this February. Gargano became a free agent when his WWE contract expired last December, and he took time off from wrestling both before and after LeRae gave birth.

Gargano made his return to WWE on the August 22 episode of Raw. He’s been feuding with Austin Theory since. After defeating Gable last night, Gargano was attacked by Theory after the match.

Johnny Gargano says it was important to him to keep his WWE return a secret. 

Gargano made his unadvertised return to the company on the August 22 edition of Raw from Toronto. During a recent appearance on After the Bell, Gargano commented on the reaction he received that night and also why he was hesitant to have it happen in Cleveland. 

“It was very fun to be able to literally keep a secret in a time period where that doesn’t happen,” Gargano said. “Everything leaks nowadays. Everything in wrestling leaks and I remember when I was younger I loved things during the Attitude Era where you’d be watching Nitro or you’d be watching Raw and someone would just show up and you’d be like, ‘What the hell is going on? I can’t believe they’re here.’ The dirt sheets and things like that were around but it also wasn’t as prevalent as it is today with the internet and whatnot.” 

“That was the most important thing to me for this secret, for this return was to make it a complete surprise. Obviously, I could have came back two weeks prior in Cleveland but everyone believed that, everyone thought that was going to happen. That’s probably why it didn’t happen. It would have been great, I would love to come back in my hometown, I still haven’t wrestled in that arena, which is mind-blowing to me.” 

“It was really important for me to just keep this whole thing under wraps as much as possible. The fact that we were able to do that, the fact that I flew into Buffalo and I was snuck across the border.” 

“Snuck legally across the border, we’re not getting in trouble here, snuck across the border into Toronto,” Gargano clarified. 

“A big part of me didn’t want to come back in Cleveland because I knew if I would have came back in Cleveland it would have gotten an amazing reaction but people would have been like, ‘Oh you know, he’s this little kid from NXT and he got the reaction because it’s his hometown.'”

“So, to come back in Toronto in an arena, I think, like, 16,000 people might have been in that arena. It was really cool because a commercial break happened, we came back from commercial break and then my music started playing. The reaction was such a cool reaction to experience because it was like, the music hit and everyone was like, ‘Wait a minute, that’s familiar, what is this?’ And then my name came across the Tron and everyone was like, ‘Wait a minute, what’s going on right now? What’s happening? And then I walked out and everyone lost their minds, and then the Johnny Wrestling chants started, and everyone was super fun to play with.”

“That, for me, is going to be one of the lasting memories for me is that gradual pop and that gradual reaction when people realized what was happening.” 

Gargano also told a story about how watching Stranger Things and listening to the Kate Bush song, “Running Up That Hill” during his free agency played a role in his decision to return to WWE.

“This is when I knew what I wanted to do. I was watching Stranger Things and the song came on and the first thing that popped into my head was, ‘Wait a minute, that’s Shawn vs. The Undertaker’s song from WrestleMania.’ Placebo did a cover of it,” he said. 

“I watched the hype video for Shawn and Taker from Mania and I sat there in the kitchen, Candice was right there she can tell you this, I sat there in the kitchen and I watched this hype video as she’s doing baby stuff, and it just hit me watching this video, I was, like, this is what I want to do, this is where I want to be and this is what I want to do. This is why I got into this, to have videos like this about me but also to have these WrestleMania stories and matches and I haven’t had that yet. I haven’t had that WrestleMania moment, I haven’t had that WrestleMania match.”

Gargano was also asked how close he was to signing with another company during his free agency.

“It crossed my mind but I was at the point too where I wasn’t ready to come back yet. I was enjoying myself. Obviously, I have people who work around me that go out and talk to other places. I luckily have a great team around me that makes stuff happen for me that had those discussions so I don’t have to.” 

“Obviously, it crossed my mind,” he continued. “I watch everything, I’m a wrestling fan at the end of the day. We’re all just wrestling nerds, so I watch everything but it always just came back down to when I was a little kid, and I said this in my return promo, when I was a little kid I dreamed of becoming Intercontinental Champion, I dreamed of becoming WWE Champion, I dreamed of wrestling at WrestleMania. Those things hold so much weight to me”

Johnny Gargano says his appearance on Raw last night “still feels like a dream.” 

After nine months away, Gargano returned to the company in an unadvertised segment on Monday’s show from Toronto. He took to Twitter on Tuesday to comment on the experience. 

“Last night still feels like a dream.. Toronto.. after 9 months away.. you have no idea how much THAT reaction meant to me! You ran the full gamut of emotions until I walked out! Seriously.. THANK YOU ALL for the excitement around my return. Wrestling is so cool,” he posted to Twitter. 

Last night still feels like a dream..

Toronto.. after 9 months away.. you have no idea how much THAT reaction meant to me! You ran the full gamut of emotions until I walked out! 😆

Seriously.. THANK YOU ALL for the excitement around my return.

Wrestling is so cool. ❤️ https://t.co/9wp5uUik76

— Johnny Gargano (@JohnnyGargano) August 23, 2022

Following the show, Gargano was interviewed for a WWE digital exclusive. 

“I’m still at a loss for words,” Gargano said. “When you’re away for so long, I was away for nine months as I said, and I was kind of just changing diapers and watching Bluey and doing the dad thing for a long time. It’s just one of those things where you just don’t know if people are going to remember who you are. And yeah, I was here for a long time in NXT and I did a lot of cool things, but there’s still a big part of me who was just a nervous wreck all day because I was like, hopefully, at least one person remembers who I am. And then to stand there and watch my name come up on the Tron and see people go nuts, it’s really a relief though, I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders now because people remember who I am, and now it’s time to get to work.” 

“I said that I came back for a lot of different reasons, but first of all, I wanted to be Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, WWE Champion, I want to wrestle at WrestleMania and there’s only one place you can do that, and that’s here in WWE, that’s why I came back.” 

Gargano was also excited that his baby got a chant from the live crowd at Raw. 

“I’m really excited, honestly, now to go back home and see my baby. I think he was watching, he might be sleeping. He got a chant tonight, there was a baby wrestling chant in a WWE ring, yeah, score one for him. He’s going to appreciate it when he’s older.”

Johnny Gargano has returned to WWE.

Gargano made his WWE return on Monday’s Raw, appearing during the third hour. He had taken time away from wrestling to care for his newborn son with Candice LeRae.

He talked about while taking that time off, he questioned whether or not he wanted to do this anymore. He said one day he was playing with his son and remembered he had dreams of becoming the United States, the WWE Champion, and main eventing WrestleMania. He said what kind of father would he be if he didn’t teach his son that the biggest dreams could come true. He said when he left he said you’ll never fail if you bet on yourself. He said he is doing that tonight and he stands here and is proud to say that Johnny Wrestling is back.

JOHNNY GARGANO IS BACK!!!!!!!!!@JohnnyGargano has arrived on #WWERaw. pic.twitter.com/KmPs8c3OTG

— WWE (@WWE) August 23, 2022

Theory then came out. He said a lot of things have happened in the last nine months. He mentioned that all the dreams Gargano has, he’s already done them. He said he couldn’t have done any of this without Gargano, as he took him under his wing. Theory said he could be his caboose, carry his bags, carry his briefcase and he could show Gargano “the way”. Theory eventually wanted Gargano to do the high five they used to do in NXT. Gargano acted like he was going to do it, but instead hit Theory with a superkick to end the segment.

Gargano hasn’t appeared on WWE television since the December 7, 2021 edition of NXT, where he gave a farewell speech before being laid out by Grayson Waller. His contract expired shortly after.

Johnny Gargano has said that a big part of him doesn’t want to wrestle past 40. 

The 34-year-old took part in an interview with Chris Van Vliet recently and said he wants to maximize the remaining years he has left on his in-ring career. 

“There is a big part of me that says I only want to wrestle until I’m 40 and that’s only six years away at this point. So, I feel like I have about five years left to maximize whatever I want to do in this.”

Gargano continued to say that it had been his dream to be WWE Champion and wrestle at WrestleMania.

“There’s also things that change those dreams like having a baby, wanting to be home more. There’s a lot of things I’m juggling right now,” he continued. 

“I’m just hoping that as this all plays out the right answer and right path will show itself to me.”