>If he was bouncing, him reuniting #DIY at the end of Wargames
>(and not taking the pin) was probably the best send-off they'd
>give him. I really doubt WWE lets him speak his peace last
>night unless he was coming back.
>
>I'm going to guess he's taking time off for paternity leave
>and makes his dramatic NXT return in March to beat the shit
>out of Waller.

Yep. I think he does that, loses to Waller, then leaves NXT. Then, he shows up on Smackdown for a short while. Then, he becomes a agent ala Dean Malenko back when he came over with Eddie/Saturn/some other badass wrestler who we don't/can't really talk about for his work anymore.

KOR barely got to say shit so I'm guessing he's gonna go do AEW (and soon), everyone in the back already knows it, and he wanted to lay down 2 different jobs on the way out out of respect for Haitch and Shawn.

WWE brass allegedly loves the hell out of Johnny Wrestling.

Again, I go back to that indy show in Dallas before Mania 32 (2016).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWNLive_Mercury_Rising

Johnny was there and they had him cut a promo about the WWNLive/WWE working relationship at length right as damn near everyone on the show was about to end up in WWE somehow. Tommy End/Malaki/Aliester Black, Tim Thatcher, Zach Sabre Jr, BRO Riddle, Gulak, Ibushi, Chris Hero, so many folks from that show ended up doing something with WWE. It was a crazy time capsule of a show really.

But anyway, I think Johnny's relationship with Shawn and Hunter appears to be TIGHT. AKA even if he is leaving and they know already, I think HBK (and Hunter) are really big on trying to give certain people cool/sappy sendoffs. Sure, you're gonna lose/get your shit rocked somehow on the way out, but still...giving Gargano an open mic is on-brand for them whether he was leaving or not.

As for me, I'm a sucker for underdogs and nerdy rasslers who generally do the nuances right like Johnny so that whole shit worked on me all the way.

Kinda like Cole, Gargano won me over with sheer volume of crazy good matches back to back in NXT. I get that he's little and that'll stop him from ever main eventing a Mania. But his NXT run was mostly gorgeous. I like him almost as much as I like Sami Zayn in NXT. Zayn showing up on the main roster to wrestle Cena is still one of my favs even though he tore his shoulder up and missed roughly forever after that match!