WWE Royal Rumble 2021: 3 wrestlers who need to win the men’s RR

3. Johnny Gargano

Alright, it’s time we had a talk about Johnny Gargano’s heel schtick. Yes, to over-the-top, obnoxious persona the current NXT North American Champion has adopted provides plenty of entertaining moments, but you could argue that his usage in this role is, at least, suboptimal.

It’s like asking LeBron James to only shoot 3’s or asking Patrick Mahomes to only throw short passes. Sure, they CAN perform those tasks well, but you’re inhibiting them by keeping them from doing what they do best (driving to the paint for LeBron, stretching the football field with his arm for Mahomes).

Plus, there’s also this “former letterman player hanging around the high school they graduated from” vibe with Gargano. The NXT creative team tried to address this by giving Gargano the most patchwork faction this side of The Welcoming Committee, but even that feels like an obfuscation of the obvious.

Simply put, Gargano needs a hard reboot, preferably one where he’s factory reset as a babyface, and having him enter the Royal Rumble and pull out a scrappy win would be the ideal way to start from scratch. Hey, it beats sharing television time with the charisma black hole that is Austin Theory.