10 Creative Triumphs Of WWE’s PG Era
7. The Rise And Fall Of #DIY
The buzz surrounding NXT has dissipated in the last year or so, but that's not an indictment of the product. The TakeOver specials remain the best things WWE produces. The #DIY tandem of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa have produced the match of the night on virtually every one they've appeared on.
Gargano and Ciampa were initially drafted in to do flattering jobs. They were tremendous talents, but weren't likely to appear in the front row of TakeOver events, with Tom Philips crowing about the coup of their potential signatures. They appeared sporadically on NXT TV before being lumped together to bolster the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic field. Their chemistry did not go unnoticed - the duo received flexible deals in the aftermath, and better deals yet when it became apparent that they were superb in both tandem and opposition; their Cruiserweight Classic match, in an astute bit of booking, added a tense wrinkle to their symbiotic journey through the company, which NXT creative transposed onscreen in a rare success of blending storyline and reality.
Their subsequent break-up generated so much emotion because it was booked when fans were most emotionally invested in the team. And it was built towards superbly, having been foreshadowed the entire time. As blinding as their chemistry was, they weren't really a traditional tag team but two men thrust together to achieve a shared goal.
It was always combustible. The grim inevitability charged their break-up.