Johnny Gargano has now spent six months lying face-down on WWE television, and the latest acknowledgment of it came from the Undisputed WWE Champion. On the August 7 episode of SmackDown from Philadelphia, CM Punk walked into a backstage segment where Sami Zayn was venting to Gargano and Candice LeRae, with Gargano still planking, and told Zayn he would sooner hand Gargano and LeRae a title match than give Zayn another shot at the belt.
The line landed as a punchline. Six months in, the gimmick has become SmackDown shorthand for a wrestler nobody takes seriously anymore, which is roughly the point.
Why Is Johnny Gargano Planking?
The character gave up. Gargano’s on-screen collapse started in January after two losses landed inside the same three weeks.
Tommaso Ciampa, his best friend and #DIY tag team partner, let his WWE contract expire and signed with AEW, disbanding the team on January 21. Then on the January 30 episode of SmackDown, Axiom beat Gargano and reclaimed the mask Gargano had stolen and paraded as a trophy, tricking him with a spare before finishing the match with the Golden Ratio.
From that point he stopped talking and stopped standing. Gargano turned up in backstage segments face-down on production crates, tables, and equipment cases while LeRae tried and failed to get help from Axiom, Nathan Frazer, and the Motor City Machine Guns. Chris Sabin’s response was to remind her that Gargano had cost them the WWE Tag Team Championship.
Is Johnny Gargano Actually Depressed?
No. The unresponsive version of Gargano is a scripted character arc with no connection to a real injury or personal situation, and he has spent the entire run winking at it in public.
He posted a photo of himself lying flat on the floor on February 7 captioned “Hello darkness my old friend,” then followed it three days later with a clip of himself planking on a moving treadmill and the caption “working out is great for your mental health.” In March he posted “What’s the point in trying,” then ran a Twitch stream and spent almost all of it face-down. When the stream started trending, his entire public response was “Ok.”
The bit travels with him. He planked through his WWE World photo ops in April, and his SummerSlam weekend session in Minneapolis on August 2 was advertised with a note that he would be planking for the photo.
Has He Broken Character At All?
A few times, always away from SmackDown. He made a surprise NXT return in March and won a gauntlet match to become the number one contender to the NXT North American Championship, then lost to Myles Borne at Stand & Deliver on April 4.
He has also appeared as a guest coach on WWE LFG, dropping the gimmick entirely to work with Performance Center prospects alongside Booker T and head trainer Matt Bloom. He was advertised again for a recent season three episode, paired with Jazz.
When Does the Storyline End?
WWE hasn’t announced a payoff. The closest it has come was the March 6 episode of SmackDown, when LeRae told him he couldn’t keep doing this forever and Gargano finally got to his feet, walked to the ring, and cut a promo about wanting to be Johnny Wrestling again. Oba Femi came out and beat him in minutes, putting him straight back into plank position.
Cryptic posts from Gargano and LeRae after that loss sparked speculation about his WWE future. Fightful Select reported at the time that Gargano was firmly under contract, while noting the phrasing carried limited meaning.
Five months on from that promo, he’s still on television every week, still horizontal, and still drawing more discussion than most wrestlers who are upright. That may be the entire idea.
