10 Times Wrestling Matches Got Weapons Wrong
7. LOADED CUP - Johnny Gargano Vs. Tommaso Ciampa, NXT, April 8, 2020
'One Final Beat' aimed for epic but slipped and literally fell on its own, severely masturbated d*ck.
The last chapter of the Johnny Gargano Vs. Tommaso Ciampa melodrama, it was a deeply portentous work that plunged the story and indeed the entire brand into the depths of parody. With breathing as heavy as Sunn O))) and a pacing just as glacial - that is an insult to Sunn O))), sorry, but it's apt - Gargano and Ciampa took this slog incredibly seriously to the point of perverse hilarity. It thought it had a soul. It thought, through the title alone, that it had heart, when in the reality from which NXT has long since divorced itself, it was a crudely-assembled, dark, miserable tick-box exercise of synthetic callbacks and pointless, gratuitous, tedious violence. It was as oppressive and as long as it was, so past its once great peak, unwanted.
It ended when Candice LeRae appeared to ask both men why they are so violent. She hated her husband now, she told Ciampa, echoing the thoughts of so many fans who really rather liked the super-working babyface of 2018. She kicked both in the balls, but Gargano was OK. This was a ruse - a deeply contrived and fortunate ruse - and it marked her heel turn.
"Loaded cup" is a ridiculous defensive weapon used ridiculously, but the criticisms of a plot hole weren't warranted, actually.
This thing was hardly going to end after 18 minutes, was it.
She was right to wait.