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What's the story?
In what might be one of the greatest stories the WWE has ever told Johnny Gargano successfully defeated Tomasso Ciampa using a crutch and Ciampa's knee brace to win the Unsanctioned Match at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans and regain his job in NXT.
In case you didn't know...
This has been a storyline over a year in the making with Ciampa turning on his former DIY partner Johnny Gargano before sitting out several months to recover from injuries. Ciampa returned at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia to attack Gargano after his losing effort against Andrade "Cien" Almas. Ciampa would then go on to cost Gargano his second attempt at the NXT Title and get him fired from the company.
The heart of the matter
This is unequivocally the best example of storytelling in wrestling I personally have ever seen, and maybe the best wrestling match that I've ever seen, period. The use of callbacks, the counters, the pacing, the brutality the imagery and metaphors. Everything Gargano and Ciampa did in the ring was perfect.
The match got off to a great start from the outset with Ciampa entered with no entrance music and the very real hatred from the audience rained down on him, with the Superstar being subject to not very PG chants throughout the match.
There was sickening spots such as a powerbomb unto concrete, a suplex off of the announce table, Gargano almost killing Ciampa with a sharpened, snapped crutch, several stiff shots, liberal use of weapons.
The finish came when Ciampa was forced to go to the well and remove his knee brace with the intention of planting Gargano with an exposed knee. However Gargano uses the knee brace to take Ciampa's knee out and then after briefly considering stopping, he puts Ciampa in a submission and uses the brace for leverage to force Ciampa to tap.
What's next?
Hopefully Ciampa will retain his incredible level of heat rarely seen in wrestling heels today, and hopefully, Gargano's NXT story will see him continue on this path to redemption fairly quickly so he can move up the main roster as soon as possible.
Author's take
I am truly lost for words as to how to truly describe how good this match was and how great the story has been.
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