6 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Chicago

by Scott Carlson

1. Hatred, With Mustard

NXT TakeOver Chicago 2 Tommaso Ciampa Johnny Gargano
WWE

The rivalry between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano has been a tremendous roller-coaster of emotion. Ever since last year’s TakeOver: Chicago, we’ve seen the former DIY teammates’ hatred boil over.

It exploded in New Orleans, but it went full nuclear in Chicago on Saturday night. The two men took a street fight and turned it into an all-out brawl that felt very different than your typical “garbage” match. We got some of the typical spots you see in these street fights, but the storylines – Gargano’s injured neck, Ciampa’s surgically repaired knee, the intense hatred – were woven into the match.

Seeing Johnny Wrestling snap – after Ciampa had ripped Gargano’s wedding ring off, spit on it and threw it away – was something else. Gargano handcuffed Tommaso and superkicked him a half-dozen times, which is something no babyface would ever do in WWE.

But ultimately, officials interfered in trying to stop a no-holds barred match (William Regal needs to fire those suits!), which gave Ciampa one last gasp for a DDT on the exposed wood – and the win.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.