6 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (11 Sept)
3. What's NXT For Johnny Wrestling?
WWE.com Johnny Gargano milked the sh*t out of an extended "Johnny Wrestling" chant before getting to the fairly punctuated point of his promo, and whilst it wasn't remotely funny, the rhythm had something of a Stewart Lee routine about it - at the point it appeared to conclude, it ramped back up, then fell, then rose, then fell.
Seconds can last lifetimes in pro wrestling, and the 125 or so between Gargano grabbing the microphone to talk and him actually saying the world gave his spiel the sort of gravitas his TakeOver: Toronto match failed to deliver.
Smartly alluding to his career in the past tense to play on the anxiety of his adoring audience, Gargano teed up something "official" before Shane Thorne interrupted to expedite what he assumed was an NXT departure.
The sheer audacity of it got over, as did Gargano's fake-out exit before chlipping him with a superkick. "I'm not going anywhere" got the pop it deserved - this brand is exactly where he needs to be and where he's needed.