7 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver Brooklyn III

4. A White Hot Opener

andrade gargano
WWE.com

What do you think the message from gorilla was to Johnny Gargano and Andrade “Cien” Almas? Tear the house down? Set the bar super-high?

Whatever it was, Almas and Gargano traded matwork, high-impact offense, several high-flying moves and a few near-falls to whip fans into a frenzy. Both men escaped each other’s finishers and both looked to have the match well in hand at various points. The X-factor was Almas’ manager, Zelina Vega, who distracted Gargano in a very unique way.

Vega threw a DIY T-shirt into the ring at Gargano, causing him to pause for just a second, and that allows Almas to take over and grab the win with his hammerlock DDT. Considering everything Gargano and former partner Tommaso Ciampa have been through, it was a clever way to pull his attention away from the match. Points for that as well.

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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.