10 Awesome WWE Moments We Wish Had Happened Earlier
6. Johnny Gargano Winning The NXT Championship
Johnny Gargano's match with Adam Cole for the NXT Championship at TakeOver: New York was brilliant, structured perfectly to completely unite a divided crowd behind the heroic Gargano defying all the odds and winning his first NXT Championship. It was tremendous and still remains one of the best moments in NXT history, but it's undeniable that Gargano's crowning as the star of the brand should have happened earlier.
Gargano's best feud in NXT wasn't with Tommaso Ciampa, the rivalry that defined so much of modern NXT's main event, but with the NXT Champion Andrade "Cien" Almas, who truly helped establish him as a singles star. Their 5 star masterpiece at TakeOver Philadelphia, where Gargano lost a hard fought battle, is this writer's favourite WWE match of all time and it seemed inevitable that after his rivalry with Ciampa reached its final moments, that Gargano would vanquish his other demon and finally defeat Almas.
Instead, he spent a year feuding with Ciampa before the final blow-off was made impossible due to Ciampa's neck injury. Thankfully, the cathartic moment of Johnny Wrestling's victory was still breathtaking thanks to his and Adam Cole's talents, but it could have been something entirely different in 2018.