10 Times WWE Forced It Down Our Throats
9. Johnny Gargano Vs. Tommaso Ciampa
'Steve Austin vs. The Rock.
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn.
Ric Flair vs. Sting.
Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart.
Professional wrestling is built on rivalries that span years, decades, generations. These are the pillars on which an entire industry rests, where icons are made and nostalgia formed. WWE’s problem (well, one of WWE’s problems) is that the mass of content that the modern world demands leads to any potential modern versions of these feuds being oversaturated almost immediately.
The Johnny Gargano/Tomasso Ciampa rivalry is the best example of this. The feud has spanned five years, but WWE’s insistence on returning to it means it feels like it has lasted a lifetime.
Injuries have played their part. While Gargano has stayed largely injury-free and thus had feuds with other people (Andrade and Aleister Black, most notably), Tommaso Ciampa’s bad luck on the medical front means his NXT run has been almost entirely taken up with Gargano-related things, be they with or against. Who else has Ciampa feuded with over his time in NXT?
WWE has done all that it can to make the fans believe that this is the greatest rivalry in NXT, that these two former best friends are forever entangled in a dance with death. All of that may well be true, but boy oh boy are some fans sick of it.