WWE NXT: What If Tommaso Ciampa Goes After Candice LeRae?

At WWE NXT TakeOver New Orleans, Johnny Gargano successfully fought to get his job back, defeating Tommaso Ciampa in an “Unsanctioned Match” that may have been one of WWE’s greatest matches of all-time. But the fallout from Gargano’s win could be costly for “Johnny Wrestling”, because Ciampa isn’t the type of person who will let this loss go.

Tommaso Ciampa tried to cost Johnny Gargano everything. When Gargano faced Andrade “Cien” Almas for the WWE NXT Championship on NXT TV for the last time, he did so by putting his career on the line. And just when he had the match won by putting Almas in the “Gargano Escape”, Ciampa arrived, hitting Gargano with the same crutch that he used to hit Gargano after the Rebel Heart’s loss to Almas at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia.

This all led to last night’s match at TakeOver: New Orleans, which met lofty expectations. Ciampa and Gargano put on an instant classic that had callbacks to their days as tag team partners, and the match was both brutal and poetic with a satisfying conclusion that saw Gargano exact revenge on a man who has tried to ruin his life.

After the show, the head of NXT himself, Triple H, spoke to Cathy Kelly about the match. His words about Ciampa were chilling, as he warned the NXT Universe that if they think what Ciampa has done to this point has been odious, wait until they see what he has planned next.

Ciampa is the exact type of person who won’t be able to take an emotional loss like this one, and he’ll want to brutalize Gargano for essentially embarrassing him. Recall that Gargano won the match by defeating Ciampa with his own knee brace, locking him up in a crossface submission hold that forced Ciampa to tap out. And there’s nothing worse than tapping out to someone you can’t stand, especially if it’s in your first match back.

Gargano’s real-life wife Candice LeRae has been a part of this story, and she even appeared on the kick-off show panel at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans to talk about the emotions involved in this feud. LeRae also helped Gargano stave off Almas’s business associate Zelina Vega during Gargano’s NXT Championship feud.

She could play a bigger role in this rivalry, too, especially because Gargano and Ciampa aren’t finished. On Twitter, Ciampa made excuses about how his knee injury affected him in the loss, calling Gargano a coward for attacking his knee. Meanwhile, Gargano declined Daniel Bryan’s invitation to SmackDown Live, stating he has more to accomplish in NXT, which likely means he still has his eyes set on acquiring a singles title.

This feud isn’t over, and based on Triple H’s comments, I fully expect Ciampa to up the ante. And you know who has experience in intergender wrestling and is perhaps the best intergender wrestler in the world? Candice LeRae.

Triple H spoke about how Ciampa will do something especially heinous, and there’s nothing more heinous than going after another man’s wife. It’s going to be scary. It’s going to make us angry. It’s going to make some people appalled. But there’s no other way to establish Ciampa as THE worst heel in recent memory than having him go after LeRae.

On the bright side, it will also probably be safe. LeRae is a bad-ass who has so much experience in intergender wrestling that she’ll know how to pull this off. The same goes for Ciampa, who is both an excellent wrestler and close with LeRae and Gargano in real life. There’s very little risk of anything going awry here, which would be the most serious problem to avoid. As long as intergender wrestling or attacks are done safely and not in poor taste (LeRae should be able to get her comeuppance in some way and should be able to fight back at some point, even if blindsided), they can be empowering and add to the story of a feud.

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NXT isn’t afraid to be bold, and they usually get things right. Ciampa could take this feud to the next level by attacking LeRae, and while it is a risk, there’s plenty of reward here and it could set a positive precedent for the brand if done properly. Ciampa vs. Gargano is the hottest feud in wrestling right now, with the possible exception of Kenny Omega vs. Cody Rhodes and all of the players therein, and the NXT brand could capitalize on it by involving LeRae to help show an additional side to all three characters in this rivalry.