10 Long-Term WWE Pay Offs You Should Be Excited For

7. Do It Themselves

Ciampa Gargano
WWE.com

Tommaso Ciampa's February 2019 neck injury brought a three-year feud with Johnny Gargano to an unexpected and abrupt climax a month shy of how the real one should have played out.

It was likely that 'Johnny Wrestling' was going to win the NXT Championship at TakeOver: New York in April, but the victory he craved was one against the man that had sacrificed everything he loved to make it so. Ciampa's real life injury turned him kayfabe babyface, resulting in Triple H making the brave decision to have the pair make fragile amends on screen following Gargano's win.

Returning in time for NXT's move to USA Network, Ciampa set his sights on "Goldie" and passively linked arms with fellow face Gargano in the process. But was anything truly resolved? Surely...surely the pair want one final fight to determine conclusively just who the better man is.

Should Ciampa regain the Championship as many presume he will, a last shot for Gargano seems appropriate. As respectful babyfaces, they could assemble a technical spectacle not witnessed since the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic banger that started all this. As bookending showcases of their immense talents, there'd be no finer way to close out the epic tale.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett