8 Early Predictions For NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

2. Johnny Gargano Vs. Tommaso Ciampa

With that in mind, the feud that will come to define NXT will move onto the next step at TakeOver: New Orleans. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa are going to go at it all the way through 2018. It is difficult to imagine a WrestleMania weekend TakeOver happening without this much-anticipated singles match.

Many fans are expecting a stipulation to be added to the match, but that might be to the feud’s detriment. Ciampa and Gargano should do battle in a straight one-on-one singles match in New Orleans, leaving the brand plenty of legroom when it comes to adding gimmicks further down the line.

What’s more, Ciampa should well and truly destroy Gargano here. I’m talking Edge and Matt Hardy SummerSlam 2005 destruction. The match should last no more than five or six minutes, and should absolutely be a one-sided obliteration that will cause sections of the fanbase to complain about being cheated, an annihilation that ends when the referee decides Gargano can take no more.

It must be remembered that NXT’s biggest show of the year is the SummerSlam weekend TakeOver, and that is where this feud will come to a peak. If the NXT Championship can find its way to Ciampa before Brooklyn IV, even better. That show will be headlined by a steel cage match between the former best friends, where Gargano finally gets his revenge on the man who stabbed him in the back.