Gargano and Ciampa continue to be absolutely riveting, even when not fighting

Gargano begins to learn from his rival, Tommaso Ciampa, and begins to let go of control. EC3, unfortunately for him, is the victim. Courtesy of the WWE

By Matthew Klink (@klinkmatt)

Good golly Ms. Molly, this is good TV.

With William Regal telling Johnny Gargano to move on from Tommaso Ciampa, I believed we were getting an easy escape from a feud that has gone on for over a year. Gargano, facing EC3, had nothing in this match that even slightly hinted at the rivalry. Fortunately, for us wrestling fans, we should be more excited for the next chapter in the Gargano and Ciampa feud than we ever have been.

Gargano, near the end of his match with EC3, seemed to realize that his old way of doing things wasn't going to get the job done. He couldn't rely in his expert level technique and aerobatics to give him the victory. He couldn't be the 'good ol' Johnny Wrestling, and take down the 'Top 1 Percent'.

Forgetting the fact that EC3 is twice the size of Gargano, I still figured this would be a victory for EC3. His character needs a victory and I guessed this would be the start of his push to the top. Especially as this match was coming to a close and Gargano's offensive choices didn't seem to have the desired effect on EC3, I felt only more confident that Gargano was doomed. 

It's silly though...that I thought that. Gargano had already gone through the "I can't win a match" story line. And he still ended that story with a loss. It surely would have meant there was a collective brain fart billowing down at Full Sail University.

Gargano realized that he needed to be different to win this match and damn it all if that isn't exciting! He turned slightly heel in keeping his hold on EC3 past the rope break. He pulled down his knee pad to add extra 'umph' to his strikes. And he took out EC3 with a punishing, no resistance DDT, similar to that of Randy Orton. 1-2-3...We've got a new Gargano.

With Ciampa starting to feud with the NXT Champion, Aleister Black, I began to formulate the ultimate rubber match between Gargano and Ciampa in my head: The match to end this feud and send both of these guys to wrestling's elite status.

This does mean that Aleister Black loses the NXT Championship, but I haven't cared about that title since Aleister got involved with it. 

I'm not sure when this happens, but we may be in store for a conclusion to this rivalry at an NXT Takeover show...for the NXT Championship! 

The real story here is how these guys have owned NXT for the past year. Even with Ciampa out, the fans couldn't wait for him to come back. Then, of course, the Takeover battles have been more than epic and will surely be competing with each other for match of the year. Now, with their latest feud decreed to be over, by NXT's GM, they are still in the front of my mind as I fantasize about how amazing their next fight will be.

I might even be over-thinking it, but right now...I am so glad that these two guys exist and that we have geniuses at the helm for NXT's creative direction. 

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