10 Biggest Promises WWE Broke In 2020
7. Tommaso Ciampa And Johnny Gargano Will Never Wrestle Again
The Tommaso Ciampa Vs. Johnny Gargano rivalry aged horrendously.
An intricate saga of awesome heft, the New Orleans Unsanctioned match was a brutal epic worked with harrowing conviction to seminal dramatic effect. It was among the very best things WWE ever produced.
And then they went and spoiled it all by turning the exceptional pure babyface into a tweener. Gargano cut promos on bridges about embracing the darkness within because dark and gritty DC Comics fare is so NXT it's a wonder Zack Snyder isn't on creative. The follow-up matches indulged in excess, and the ambition of the story just scanned as pretension, like the exploration of Johnny Gargano's soul was profound or some sh*t. Shaken at What He Had Done, Gargano spent more time looking at his hands than Jerry Lawler has spent eyeing up a pair of t*ts.
Desperate to combat AEW's Wednesday night dominance, NXT returned to its most critically acclaimed hit earlier this year with the roles reversed. But, sensing it was a big ask, NXT claimed it was the very last Tommaso Ciampa Vs. Johnny Gargano match.
"The Game made one thing clear: This is it. If they engage again following this battle, they will both be gone from NXT," ran the copy.
The Game himself introduced the competitors ahead of 'One Final Beat' by lounging on the ropes in a cool guy pose, before Gargano and Ciampa crawled through an hysterical parody of their worst impulses. Gargano won, turning heel in the process to revitalise his career in a fantastic comedy role.
But it wasn't One Final Beat: NXT creative put both men in the very, very desperate Fatal 4-Way Iron Man match to determine the new NXT Champion on September 1, bringing the total time Ciampa and Gargano have shared a ring to four centuries.