NXT: 5 Possible Opponents For Johnny Gargano

Now that he’s NXT Champion, Johnny Gargano will have a fresh set of challengers ready to face him for his title. These men could be the ones who step up.

Besides Kofi Kingston and Becky Lynch’s respective conquests at WrestleMania 35, nothing was more cathartic that seeing Johnny Gargano defeat Adam Cole to win the NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver: New York.

The best-of-three-falls match not only delivered a compelling, emotionally draining main event to the Barclays Center audience, but also brought Gargano’s years-long journey to the developmental brand’s richest prize to a satisfying conclusion.

But as the old combat sports cliché goes, winning the title was the easy part for “Johnny Wrestling”, keeping it will be the true challenge.

While the Superstar Shake-up robbed the NXT men’s roster of some big names, it didn’t fully deplete it; there are still plenty of world-class opponents available to paint some in-ring masterpieces with one of the industry’s premier grappling artists.

With the next TakeOver event scheduled for June, Triple H and the rest of the NXT creative team have more than a month to build up some viable contenders to Gargano’s gold. But which wrestlers will they earmark for such a prominent position?

Given the plethora of talent at their disposal, there really aren’t too many bad choices. But among that strong group, these five guys seem like the most logical choices to stand opposite Gargano with the NXT Title on the line.