Leon Ruff Thought He Was Being Pranked When Told He Would Win NXT North American Title

Leon Ruff shocked the wrestling world last Wednesday when he defeated Johnny Gargano to win the NXT North American Title. 

Gargano had won the title two weeks prior at NXT Halloween Havoc and most suspected he would have an easy first defense against Ruff. That was not the case as Gargano once again failed to defend a singles title with Ruff becoming the new champion. 

“That moment everything that I did to pursue wrestling, every sacrifice that I made was worth it. I felt validated. It felt good to know that it paid off, I did myself a good job. I was doing a lot of work and I just kept telling myself, ‘if you keep doing this one day it will all pay off.’ So when it all did it was a great moment….I couldn’t believe it because at first I thought it was a joke. I thought somebody was playing a prank on the new guy; ‘ Yo, we’re gonna make him believe this and then we’re gonna see how he looks when we tell him no’ but when I found out it was real, I had to take a second to think because Johnny Gargano is somebody that I admire a lot. When I discovered who he was on the independent scene I started to watch a lot of his matches and his documentaries. I used to write a lot of notes about him, so not only to wrestle him on TV but to take the title from him it was mind blowing, I couldn’t believe I got the opportunity to do it and I felt really fortunate,” Ruff told Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture. 

Ruff is set to defend the title against Gargano in a rematch on Wednesday’s episode of NXT. 

Fightful will have live coverage of NXT beginning at 8 p.m. ET.