7 Ups And 2 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Phoenix

3. Gargano Finally Wins The Big One

Ricochet Johnny Gargano
WWE.com

Mauro Ranallo alluded to it, but Johnny Gargano’s TakeOver record wasn’t really that good heading into Phoenix, winning only 2 of his 11 TakeOver matches.

That all changed Saturday when he defeated Ricochet to win the NXT North American Championship. It also came at a time when Gargano had started saying that putting on good performances wasn’t good enough, that it’s all about wins. (Imagine that, an athlete actually caring about wins and losses, what a concept.)

If Gargano had lost, it would have put the brakes on his push and his character development. We needed the next evolution of his character, and we got it.

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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.