6 Ups And 4 Downs From NXT TakeOver: San Antonio

3. DIY Puts In Work

DIY Authors
WWE.com

Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa certainly earned their paychecks Saturday night. The duo was tasked with the duty of putting over the Authors of Pain in a lengthy and believable match, and they succeeded.

Don’t get it wrong, the Authors had a really good match with DIY, but it was largely due to Gargano and Ciampa selling moves and dishing out offense left and right that really kept the match flowing. DIY used knee strikes, chops, slaps and some tandem offense to keep Akam and Rezar at bay for parts of the match. Ultimately, they folded to their more powerful opponents.

Some will criticize the Authors for being champs despite their relative inexperience and being carried in matches. But sometimes, you’ve got to roll the dice and let the wrestlers learn. DIY did a hell of a job making the Authors look strong Saturday night.

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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.