787 Talk: Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa: A Story Of A Thousand Emotions

IMG Credit: WWE

Last time I talked about Omega vs Okada and how great Japan can be telling the story of a young man coming into his own. Whether it’s anime, movies, TV or wrestling, it’s a staple storytelling element of the country. In contrast, the US has one that when done well, goes beyond expectation. The ol’ “Barbershop Split”. Take a successful tag team of many years and title reigns. Then split them up with one believing he has become too big to be carrying his partner with a heinous betrayal. The most famous being the original. Shawn Michaels throwing partner Marty Jannetty through a glass window during Brutus Beefcake’s “Barbershop” segment.

With that out of the way, we may just be seeing the best incarnation of this feud today in the form of Tommaso Ciampa vs Johnny Gargano. Why is that? The sense of realism that NXT has played since before the rivalry. So many times, we’ve seen these teams. Whether it’s Edge and Christian, James Storm and Bobby Roode, Matt and Jeff Hardy among others. We know how close they are. We see them on television. But that’s all we see out of them (the Hardy’s break that trend in 2015). Their relationships are as deep as Raw, Impact, etc will show. Social media granted us with bigger insight into the lives of Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. We as fans years ago learned that Ciampa and Gargano started living together in Florida. We learn of Gargano’s wedding with Candice LeRae and know Tommaso was there. We know he did in fact live with the newlyweds. Through social media we also see how close they were as friends with the #GloriousBomb videos when Bobby Roode came in. You look at things on NXT and CWC, we would see Johnny Gargano injuring himself for the success of the team and Ciampa always stopping to hug him sitting down. All that together mixed and came ahead when Ciampa finally betrayed Gargano.

A second major twist came unexpectedly when Ciampa was injured right after the betrayal. That opened up the door for a new concept. Gargano losing his focus. Despite Tommaso Ciampa not being there, just a shirt reminding him of the man was enough to have Gargano seemingly suffer PTSD and shut down. Later on Gargano would simply lose his focus any time he had a big match. We saw the effects this betrayal had on the mind of the man.

When Tommaso Ciampa returned  we as fans were so emotionally invested in Johnny Gargano who had managed to recover from said betrayal to challenge for the World title. Ciampa’s return attacking Gargano after his incredible match with Andrade Cien Almas made such a big impact. Gargano had finally gotten his life back on track. But the man that ruined Gargano’s life was back again. This time there were no injuries to stop a match from happening. The fight was on and it happened at New Orleans. The two gave us an emotional battle. None of the finesse that you saw with Omega vs Okada. This was not a battle to be the best in the world. It’s a war between two best friends who came apart. The match was built with many callbacks to their time. Together and separated. We saw them throw each other against the LED boards in the entrance. The same thing Ciampa did when he turned on Gargano. They threw themselves off the stage, similar to Ciampa’s attack on Gargano at NXT TV. Gargano hit their signature tag team maneuver. Crutches were the weapon of choice. What Ciampa used in his return to attack Gargano as well as what he used to cost Gargano the NXT title and his job in NXT. Gargano even threatening to stab Ciampa with a broken crutch but opting not to because he’s better than that and would not stoop to Ciampa’s level. Their match concluded with Gargano using Ciampa’s knee brace to submit him. The knee brace of course being from Ciampa’s injury, delaying the match. When the match finally took place, it was the instrument of his defeat.

Now, you could say that was the perfect ending. It was. Had that been the ending of the feud, a perfect story was told. But NXT decided, for many reasons, to double down. Ciampa continued to torment Gargano. This time, Gargano’s wife Candice LeRae tried to stop them. But she became a casualty. Now why would NXT insist in continuing this feud? The most notable part is where it might’ve just ended: Chicago. Where a year earlier, Tommaso Ciampa ended his team with Johnny Gargano, by slamming him against the LED board and driving him through a table. This would make the feud finish where it started.

The rematch saw the same raw emotion as the first one but this time Gargano felt far more violent. Something emphasized by his wife Candice giving him the broken crutch he almost stabbed Ciampa with in New Orleans and screaming “Kick! His! A**!” Gargano would also be the one taking the risks. He drives Ciampa through a table at the entrance. He was the first to use weapons. Gargano showed this time he was tired of Ciampa and was willing to do anything to end this. But Ciampa also changed tactics. Rather than brutalizing Gargano physically, he went with a more psychological approach. Best shown when he took Gargano’s wedding band and threw it away. In his rage, Gargano failed to notice that happened. But when Gargano seemed to had finally gotten his revenge and drove him through the table, he sat atop the carnage he created. he calmed down and saw his hand. Realizing he was missing the wedding band. Despite already having his victory, official pinfall aside, Gargano exploded and went back on the attack. Now Gargano was the one giving into anger and the very second he did that, he lost. Despite Ciampa being helpless, tied by handcuffs, when Gargano finally stooped to Ciampa’s level, he fell in defeat.

While the ending is not as perfect as the one in New Orleans, it tells a more realistic ending. Not of a hero triumphing over his hateful rival. But how jealousy doesn’t just affect the jealous. Anger doesn’t just affect the angry. And the second we let those affected by these traits get to us, we also become corrupted. Like the bible verse says, “Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth”. One is affected, but both pay the price when the second retaliates and we’re starting to expand on that with this week’s episode of NXT as it shows Johnny Gargano has been consumed by vengeance. The slightest reminder of Ciampa sends him into an unstoppable rage now.

One of the more peculiar details about this entire story is just what exactly set Tommaso Ciampa off to begin with. It was never a case of “I’m better than you”. It still hasn’t been. Prior to NXT Takeover Chicago, rumors of Ciampa being injured surfaced. WWE confirmed them and fed into it by adding the possibility that Gargano would need a substitute for their ladder match against the Authors Of Pain. To add to it, that very same week, it was announced that a solo theme song was recorded for Johnny Gargano. The writing was seemingly on the wall for Ciampa. If they were to split, Gargano would be the one pushed and he would fall behind. As such, he took Gargano out and has made his life impossible all in a bid to guarantee he would get ahead of him as a singles wrestler. It’s a more realistic take as we would see how Gargano was always the favored one of the team. To Gargano, it was tag team success that mattered. He was happy where he was, wrestling with his best friend. But Ciampa saw ahead and felt paranoid by what was there. Since the betrayal, the man has become completely jacked to the point that he’s just some white paint away from looking like Kratos (heck, he’s been saying “Boy” every single promo since his return) but more poignant than anything else, he has no theme song. Which reflects on one of the details that caused all this. Johnny Gargano getting his own solo theme.

In my eyes, Tommaso Ciampa vs Johnny Gargano has been one of the best feuds I’ve seen in pro wrestling. It takes full advantage of a wide range of emotions to expand both characters but more than that, after each passing match, despite the seeming diminishing returns, we see both men undergo a major development in their personality. Ciampa has become less obsessive as he’s now secured a top spot as a singles star in NXT. Johnny Gargano has become much more assertive and is no longer the wrestler who always depended on the support of his best friend and fans. He’s now fighter capable of standing on his own. But there is still one final step. Both have become main event stars. But who will be the one to reach the NXT Championship first? We might just find out sooner than later.

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Thank you for reading. My name is AB Morales, Puertorican Dirt Sheet writer, a friend of KB for years. You can find and follow me here:

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