WWE: Johnny Gargano’s Comic Book Inspirations in His War With Tommaso Ciampa

Comic books and wrestling have gone hand in hand for years now, but Johnny Gargano has taken it to the next level with his superhero themed gear during his matches with Tommaso Ciampa. The question is was he foretelling his downfall with his latest gear – and who would be a good possibility for picking him back up?

A wrestler, much like a superhero or a supervillain, should be able to tell you so much about themselves based on their clothing choices. Harmony wrote about this with Velveteen Dream recently, who is a definite master of it in NXT with his Prince inspired choices and gear specifically made to reflect his opponents. However, I think an argument can be made for Johnny Gargano also being a master of this with his gear choices he’s made in his matches with Tommaso Ciampa.

It only takes a cursory glance through Gargano’s feed to tell that he’s what would be colloquially known as “a huge nerd,” especially for Marvel. He’s rocked gear with Spider-Man and Hulk colors in the past and his barnburner of a match with Andrade Cien Almas in Philadelphia at the beginning of the year was adorned with gear inspired by Peter Quill aka Star Lord.

Admittedly, it’s not like wrestlers wearing gear inspired by superheroes is much of a stretch of the imagination. A lot of Alexa Bliss’ main roster looks take inspiration from Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, Sasha Banks made quite an impression in her Wonder Woman themed gear in this year’s Royal Rumble, and Cedric Alexander has worn gear inspired by T’Challa and Miles Morales.

Credit: WWE.com

Once Ciampa re-entered the equation of Gargano’s life though, it feels like Johnny’s choices of superheroes to channel into his gear became more deliberate. As if they were actually as much of the part of the match as Johnny and Tommaso were. Takeover New Orleans had Johnny coming out in a worn armor look with bright reds and blues specifically inspired by Thor in Thor: Ragnarok.

Gargano had recently lost his job in NXT after Ciampa interfered in a title match with Almas where he promised to leave if he lost, and he could only earn his job back if he beat Ciampa. Ragnarok, if you remember, had Thor trying to fight his way off an alien planet to save Asgard from his evil sister. Which he really only partially succeeded at.

Johnny got his job back, but Ciampa was still there in NXT as a destructive force.

Cut to Takeover Chicago II, nearly a year removed from that fateful night in Chicago where Ciampa ruined Johnny’s life. This time, Johnny came out dressed like Captain America for his street fight. Not the spangly Star Spangled Man Captain that could have easily been associated with Johnny in the past.

Here, it was gear specifically inspired by Captain America: Civil War, where Steve Rogers battles it out with his former friend Tony Stark. In certain readings on the match, you might interpret Candice LeRae and Johnny’s connection with her as the Bucky Barnes stand in, but mostly this was Johnny suiting up for war with someone he once considered his brother. 

It really didn’t help that Ciampa wore a shirt during that match that featured him as Thanos. Not only was it Gargano fighting against someone he once considered a friend, but the unstoppable force of evil that claimed to actually be doing good.

And failing.

Credit: WWE.com

Which brings us to our fourth year in Brooklyn.

As Chelsea Marcus pointed out in her article about the match, Johnny lost because he had let the anger, hate and suffering he has gone through over Ciampa take him over. He wasn’t Johnny Wrestling. He was… something else.

In Brooklyn this year, he wore gear inspired by Venom, the infamous Spider-Man villain that is a parasitic alien symbiote that infects its human hosts. Venom grants its hosts supreme strength and shape shifting abilities.

However, Venom is also hard to control no matter how hard its hosts try to do so and it often ends very badly for the humans involved. Especially for someone like Eddie Brock, who tries to still justify himself as a good person while he literally fights against an alien monster stuck to him like a parasite.

There’s been one Venom-inspired character in NXT already in the form of Finn Balor’s Demon King, but Balor ultimately has control over The Demon. Johnny, as much as he tries, does not have a handle on his darkness. Just look at how his anger over Ciampa cost Aleister Black the NXT Championship and dumped it right into his greatest enemy’s hands.

Credit: WWE.com

In a way, revealing himself as Venom showed that Gargano had already lost this battle. He gave himself over to the darkness and anger that has infected him in hopes that it would give him strength to finally win his war against Ciampa. Instead, it cost him dearly and he left Brooklyn with no title, a 3 loss streak, an injured knee and Ciampa still breathing.

Johnny Gargano has been using superheroes in his gear to help communicate his story with Tommaso Ciampa, even in moments of darkness. It has been a brilliant use of metanarrative that leaves questions about where Gargano could go next in helping tell it.

If Johnny Wrestling needs to return from the darkness in order to win over Ciampa again as he did in the Cruiserweight Classic and in New Orleans, he needs to look towards the skies. For higher, further, faster… more. To be the star he was always meant to be.

That is to say: if it’s really the endgame for Gargano and Ciampa, maybe the high flying beacon of hope and light Captain Marvel could be the hero he needs to channel next.