8 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Portland

2. Gargano/Ciampa, Part 37

Tommaso Ciampa Johnny Gargano
WWE.com

The Johnny Gargano/Tommaso Ciampa feud that carried NXT for nearly a full year was unparalleled in terms of quality wrestling we got, but personally, it would be fine if they didn’t face each other in a match for at least another six months.

The duo had three epic battles back in 2018 before reconciling last year. They teamed together a handful of times, including in the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and looked to both be on the same page opposing Undisputed Era recently.

But Gargano, fresh off losing to Finn Balor earlier in the night, turned on Ciampa during the TakeOver main event Sunday night, hitting him with the NXT Championship belt, costing his former tag partner the match.

And so, that means we’ll get more of Gargano/Ciampa. And while those matches might be great, and opinions could change, the initial takeaway is… Why? Why now, and why are we doing this again? Isn’t there anything else for either man to do?

Wouldn’t this have worked better if Tommaso had won the NXT title and then Gargano turned on him, setting up a title feud? Sorry, right now, this is gonna get a tenuous “down,” though it could end up a positive after seeing how things shake out.

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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.