Ranking Tommaso Ciampa's 10 Greatest NXT Matches

Sometimes wrestling booking can be ever so simple. In DIY, you had two indie globetrotters who’d come to NXT to take another step in their career, two smaller guys with immense talent honed in companies the world over. Authors Of Pain, meanwhile, were two WWE-developed products, big bruisers with gimmicks who dished out beatings at the behest of former LOD manager Paul Ellering.

Put them in NXT’s first ladder match with the tag titles suspended above the ring and you’ve got yourself a good time. This one writes itself - Gargano and Ciampa use their quickness and guile, Akam and Rezar bring the pain.

That’s not to say it isn’t memorable, though, because it very much is. DIY hit twin splashes on bridged ladders; Ciampa hurls Rezar off a ladder and through another one propped up against the turnbuckle (which splinters in a most satisfying manner). In a great piece of drama, Gargano saves his friend from a ladder to the face (taking the bullet in the process) before AOP retain the titles.

It’s that final sequence that stings the most when Ciampa, after the match, turns on Gargano, battering him before an absolutely devastated crowd. It was a shame to lost DIY - but the best was yet to come.