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In the wake of the disconcerting coronavirus pandemic, WWE changed the format of this week's episode of NXT and the show's first hour focussed on the final chapter in the feud between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
The storyline between Ciampa and Gargano would arguably go down as the greatest pro wrestling tale to have been scripted in NXT's history and the company did a fine job of reliving their journey right from their first day in the company.
Rare footage of their WWE tryouts from 2015 began the extensive recap hosted by Triple H and Todd Phillips. While NXT's creative team managed to give a detailed lowdown of the topsy-turvy relationship between the two experienced performers, the company did miss out on a few important details too.
Dave Meltzer revealed the untold details on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
It was noted that Gargano and Ciampa were never intended to be signed up as full-time talents. The original plan was to get the two seasoned wrestlers on board just to put over bigger NXT Superstars.
The indie fan favourites were told that they would be allowed to work outside the company and that they would be brought in to work a few TV dates to put over other talents. Gargano and Ciampa have always been great in-ring workers and WWE felt that they would make their opponents look good.
The company, however, would never have predicted that the guys who were brought on board to be enhancement talents would become the cornerstones of NXT.
Johnny Wrestling and The Psycho Killer started as a tag team before branching out to become top singles stars in the Black and Gold brand.
Here's what Meltzer revealed:
They flat out said that they cannot evaluate talent. That's what they told me. We cannot evaluate talent because Johnny Gargano was already a good wrestler in 2015 and Ciampa was good too, better than the guys they hired. So, they didn't tell the actual story of why those guys were brought in for. They were brought in because they were good workers that were supposed to come in to put over the NXT guys but what happened was is when they put them together in a tag team, to put other people over, they actually got over and by doing that they actually decided to sign.
They were actually kind of like semi, it's was like the Samoa Joe thing, where you can work anywhere you want, we just want to bring you in for TV where you put guys over because you are experience and good hands but we are not going to push you or anything like that, and then they actually snuck by and got over and then the became the biggest stars on the whole brand and the whole brand changed and they became big deals.
Gargano and Ciampa don't fit physical criteria to be top-tier WWE Superstars, however, they broke predetermined WWE stereotypes and got over with the Full Sail fans, which forced the WWE to sign them and give the duo well-deserved pushes.
It's been satisfying to watch the story unfold and it will come to an end at the next NXT Takeover event, whenever WWE decides to book the show.
