WWE NXT: Examining How Johnny Gargano Slowly Found The Darkness
via wwe.com
The Ghost of TakeOver’s Past Returns
Although he would put in a 5-star valiant effort, Johnny Gargano would fail to win the NXT Championship at TakeOver: Philadelphia. As if that wasn’t disappointing enough, a ghost from Gargano’s past emerged from the shadows to pour some salt on his wounds. After spending seven months on the shelf, a virtually unrecognizable Tommaso Ciampa returned by cracking a crutch over Gargano’s back.
Much like he did at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, Ciampa took a moment – a standing ovation – catered towards Gargano and made it his own. From that moment forward, the Blackheart of NXT would serve as a leach – a Devil, if you will – sucking on Gargano’s back until he was certain that the resident Heart of NXT was drained dry. Ciampa would strike again the following week. This time, in a Title vs Career rematch on the Feb. 2 episode of NXT TV between Almas and Gargano.
As a result of Ciampa’s interference, Gargano would be forced out of NXT and wrestling altogether. If you take the wrestling out of Johnny Wrestling, then what’s left? Nothing. That is, nothing but a broken shell of a man with a newfound bloodthirst for vengeance. The next time we would see Gargano, he failed to have the same tint in his eye that was prevalent of his jovial character. It was replaced by a blank expression with black, dead eyes.
Gargano could not just live and let die. He couldn’t put his wrestling career and his feud with Tommaso Ciampa to rest. He wasn’t going to be satisfied until he got his job back and he broke Ciampa’s neck; not necessarily in that order.
After Ciampa made his life a living hell, Gargano was hellbent on returning the favor. In the coming weeks, we would see Gargano try to ambush Ciampa at Full Sail University from the crowd, in the parking lot of the Performance Center, at Ciampa’s physical therapy and even at his home. In his two-month stint of unemployment, Gargano tapped into a darker, more deranged and obsessive part of himself that we would come to see by time the year was over.
That beast within Gargano would momentarily settle down once he had won his job back at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans in a match against Tommaso Ciampa. Not only did he get himself reinstated back into NXT, he finally found closure in defeating Ciampa after the image of his betrayal had racked his brain for several months.
Unfortunately for Gargano, Ciampa would not experience that same closure.