Johnny Gargano has been with WWE for over a decade now and throughout the years his run with the company has had its fair share of ups and downs. For the majority of 2026, Gargano spent several months planking backstage without ever wrestling a match, or ever speaking on camera.
Eventually Gargano decided to get up when he returned to the ring and challenged CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship on the September 4th episode of Friday Night SmackDown.
While talking about the reason why he planked for several months in his vlog, Gargano claimed that he was doing it in part due to his son’s reactions when he would see him lose.
“Quill watches the show. He watches SmackDown, and he loves video games. And in his head, when you win or you get a championship, you get the treasure. It’s a treasure to him. And I don’t know how many times over the past year, we would fly out on Thursday, and before I would leave, Quill would ask me like, ‘Dad, are you gonna win? You gonna get the treasure?’ And I would tell him, ‘I try, man. I’m really, really going to try.’
“Then I would have a match on SmackDown, and I’d lose. I’d come back through the curtain, and Candice would have the phone in her hand. She’d be on FaceTime, and she’d show me Quill just crying, bawling his eyes out, saying, ‘Daddy lost. Daddy’s not going to get the treasure. There’s no treasure.’
“That broke me. So in my head, it was easier to just not try than to get up and fail and let people down. And I’m not saying that’s right. I’m not saying that’s the way to go about things, but that’s what I did.“