WWE News: Johnny Gargano isn't planning to have a five-star match with Tomasso Ciampa
What's the story?
After almost a year of build-up, Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano finally collide in an unsanctioned match at NXT Takeover: New Orleans on Saturday and it seems that Gargano isn't thinking about making the match visually appealing.
In case you didn't know...
Ciampa and Gargano were once NXT Tag Team Champions but it seems that their partnership came to an end back at NXT Takeover: Chicago back in May when the duo failed to win their title back from The Authors of Pain and Ciampa took out his frustrations on his long-time friend.
The duo was living together, traveling together and working together at that point, but that was where their friendship came to an end and even though it's taken Ciampa almost a year to return from his knee surgery, he managed to pick up where he left off in Philadelphia when he attacked Gargano following a five star match against NXT Champion Andrade "Cien" Almas.
Gargano then lost his place on the NXT roster when Ciampa got involved and cost him a win over Almas a few weeks later, but it seems that being fired from NXT isn't something that has kept Gargano away, since he has continued to try to attack Ciampa both inside the Full Sail Arena and out in public in recent weeks.
The heart of the matter
Johnny Gargano's last outing saw his match with Almas awarded five stars by Dave Meltzer and has been widely considered to be one of the best matches in NXT history. Ahead of his showdown this weekend, Gargano has made it perfectly clear that he will not be looking for a five-star match against his old partner.
Gargano recently spoke to Nola.com where he was able to set the record straight when it comes to his thoughts on Ciampa.
“I still remember the Tommaso Ciampa that was my best friend, but he’s not that guy anymore. He’s a snake…I still don’t understand why. It’s something that has haunted me for 10 months. It’s something that I’ve thought about time and time again. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why. We were just coming off our first main event. We didn’t win, but I thought things were going pretty well. Obviously, I was wrong.”
It was after this match, 11 months ago, that Ciampa decided to attack his partner before then being pushed onto the sidelines for almost a year through injury. In that time Gargano climbed through the ranks in NXT, only to be brought back down to earth by a man who he once called his friend.
“The match with Andrade Almas didn’t go my way, but to have a match like that and for it to be rated five stars, I’m extremely confident right now. It was unanimously praised, but this match will be completely different. I’m not going for five stars with this one.”
What's next?
The final NXT before Takeover happens on Wednesday night and it could contain the final build-up to the match between this duo, which has been almost 11 months in the making. The duo will then collide on Saturday night in an unsanctioned match at Takeover: New Orleans.
Author's take
The slow burn of this feud has been fantastic to watch and it seems that this could be one of the most emotionally charged matches in recent years. Gargano is fighting for his career and it seems that Ciampa has his reasons for doing the things he has done to his former friend in recent months.
This is Gargano's chance to extract revenge on Ciampa and to claim his job back in NXT, there was no way this was going to be a five-star match, this is going to be a straight up fight.