Johnny Gargano explains how the pandemic impacted his character in 'The Way'

Former WWE Superstar Johnny Gargano recently claimed that his devilish character, the leader of the stable known as 'The Way,' was naturally altered due to the emergence of the pandemic.

In 2020, Gargano, for the first time in his NXT career, turned his back on fans. Later that year, along with his wife Candice LeRae and young stars Theory and Indi Hartwell, Gargano formed 'The Way.' As a group, their acts were immoral. However, they conducted themselves in a relatively humoristic fashion.

Speaking on the Bob Culture Podcast, Gargano explained how the pandemic led to him altering his bad guy character from a serious to a funny and silly alter ego:

"I think things turned out the way they were supposed to. That was never going to be the way that character was supposed to be. It was going to be a lot more serious, but I just kind of felt like with everything going on with the pandemic and with COVID and things like that, I felt like NXT just needed a little bit of levity, a little bit of funniness, silliness, goofiness, and I was happy that I was able to provide that." (H/T: EWrestling News)

'The Way' is no longer together. However, members of the group continue to thrive as performers, with Hartwell being an NXT 2.0 star while Theory reigns as the current WWE United States Champion on RAW.

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Johnny Gargano and 'The Way' helped Theory reach his next level

An association with Johnny Gargano enabled Theory to elevate his skills in the ring and on the mic.

Since leaving the stable, the 24-year-old protege of Vince McMahon has shone on WWE's main roster, capturing the US Title and coming face-to-face with Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania 38.

Theory took to Twitter after his main roster call-up last year to thank 'The Way' for improving him as a WWE Superstar:

"The Way helped me get to that next level as a performer. I can’t thank the people I was surrounded by enough. If you got lost in reality with what we gave you then we did our job." (H/T: Twitter)

Despite his recent successes on the main roster, Theory still seems to appreciate everything he learned as part of 'The Way.'