5 Surprising Moments from NXT Takeover: New Orleans

#1 The most emotional main event in NXT History

Another brutal moment in a very painful match.

There is heel heat and then there is Tommaso Ciampa heel heat. I have never seen a heel have everyone against him from the get-go. Having him come out to no music and have the crowd scream the worse possible language at him was an impressive feat of true heel heat.

The crowd was truly invested in the main event which was deservingly Gargano vs Ciampa. It held the attention of the rowdy New Orleans crowd for nearly forty minutes.

The feud has been set up perfectly. It played on the emotions of their real-life friendship and through a variety of factors have built this emotional feud over the course of years on NXT television. Just watching the promo video before the match gave me chills.

The match itself was fantastic. It was a textbook example of how to be violent without needing blood. It had many painful looking spots and believable near falls. But it was the emotion that sold it. It ended with Gargano having second thoughts about taking out his friend with the crutch.

Gargano gave Ciampa one chance to do the right thing. Ciampa naturally did not and was quickly defeated. You will have a hard time finding a better face and heel feud in the WWE in the last decade. It was surprising to see it place off so perfectly. I am ready for Gargano-Ciampa matches for years to come.

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