WWE NXT: Examining How Johnny Gargano Slowly Found The Darkness

via wwe.com

A “Moment” Stolen

DIY’s quest to regain their titles from AOP would take them to a Ladder Match against AOP six months after losing the titles. The road to the championship match was a rocky one to say the least. Mere days before TakeOver Chicago, Tommaso Ciampa would injure his ankle and his TakeOver status was up in the air.

Within moments of this news, fans were anxious to post about their “dream partners” for who Gargano should use to replace Ciampa for the Ladder Match if he can’t compete. Ciampa would later cite the fans’s eagerness to get him out of the picture as a reason to why he singlehandedly killed DIY, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. More on that later.

Tommaso Ciampa would wind up arriving to TakeOver but, again, luck wasn’t on his side when he tore his ACL five minutes into the match. Still, it was through sheer will and determination – as well as support from his partner – that helped Ciampa get through the remainder of the match. Of course, sheer will and determination alone does not get the job done in high stakes situations.

As a unit, Gargano and Ciampa withstood an onslaught of punishment from AOP and even delivered some punishment of their own with a few tricks. What is particularly worth mentioning is that near the closing moments of the match, Gargano went as far as to push his best friend out of the way of a stray ladder to the face and took the bullet himself. Even when their chances were most dire and they were on the verge of losing, Gargano still found it more important to save his friend than to make a grab for a championship. Gargano would regret saving Ciampa just minutes later.

After losing yet another TakeOver match and being drowned in the cheers and applause of a crowd on their feet beside his supposed best friend, it was then that something snapped in The Psycho Killer’s mind that convinced him to attack Gargano after the match and throw away years of friendship.

“This is MY moment,” Ciampa echoed before slamming Gagrano head first into the mini-tron.

It looked like we were heading down the road towards a Gargano vs Ciampa match shortly following the breakup. Alas, it was not to be yet. At least not yet. During the Ladder Match, The Sicilian Sociopath would legitimately rupture the ACL in his right knee and needed surgery ASAP.

While this injury would put a momentary halt to the DIY dissimilation, The Sicilian Psychopath would make sure to cut a promo explaining his actions on the May 31, 2017 episode of NXT TV. On his way out the door, Ciampa declared that “…if I was going to go away for a long, long time, then Johnny Wrestling was gonna go away for a long, long time.”

And so he did. In a metaphorical sense, rather.