WWE: My feud of the year..... The Daily Culture

There’re a few things that come into play to make a feud stand out in the WWE. You need good storytelling, reliability, and emotion. When it comes to the WWE, there are not many feuds that hit all of those areas. However, there’s one that NXT has been telling that does meet all of those criteria. I’m talking about the feud between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. For this feud, I need to begin this journey back in May of 2017.

The main event of Takeover Chicago saw DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano) take on Authors of Pain for the NXT tag titles in a ladder match. DIY was unable to reclaim the NXT tag titles. After this match, the feeling was that Ciampa and Gargano would be heading for the main roster. We saw them walking up the ramp and stop at the top of the ramp. Before they went into the locker room, Ciampa looked at Gargano and told him, “this is my moment.” It would be at this point that Ciampa would then turn on his tag partner and best friend. Unfortunately, an injury to Ciampa would put him on the shelf for most of 2017. We would then get to Takeover Philadelphia.

Johnny Gargano was challenging Andrade “Cien” Almas for the NXT title. After a fantastic match, Almas would end up retaining the belt. As Johnny Gargano and his wife Candice LeRae would be walking up the ramp, they would stop at the top of the ramp to thank the NXT universe. As he was thanking the NXT Universe, we would see someone strike him on the back with a crutch. Tommaso Ciampa would make his return to NXT and returned as a heel. When Ciampa hit Gargano, it would make Gargano the companies biggest babyface.

Over the next couple of weeks heading into Takeover New Orleans, Ciampa would explain why he attacked Gargano. Gargano would end up losing another title match against Almas. This leads him to have to leave NXT. He would then beg General Manager William Regal for a match at Takeover New Orleans. After a few shots, Regal ended up agreeing to a match. However, this would be an unsanctioned match. In case you didn’t know, an unsanctioned match is a match that the WWE doesn’t hold any responsibility. The two of them would also go at it at Takeover Chicago and Takeover Brooklyn. There Takeover Brooklyn match would happen to be for the NXT title.

People really figured that this would be the end of the feud. However, by adding Alesiter Black to the mix, it added another element to this feud. At this point, Tommaso Ciampa has “aided” Johnny Gargano to a victory over Black. Where the WWE goes with this feud will be a reason to keep up with NXT in 2019. If you recall, I mentioned that there’s three areas that makes a feud memorable. This feud hits on every area mentioned.

For starters, the relatability is exceeded in this feud. Many people who watch this feud can relate to this without thinking about it. You probably had a close friend you thought was a brother or sister. Then, they stab you right in the back with little explanation. It hits with storytelling because you have two superstars who were once best friends and are now bitter enemies. Their feud has been on par with Shawn Michaels/Triple H from 2002 and Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn from their days on the indies scene. The emotional aspect of it is you want Gargano to overcome his former friend.

I don’t think we will ever see another feud like this for some time. I could have put so many other feuds like Sami Callahan/Pentagon or Bully Ray/Flip Gordon to name some. I put it as this one because I was heavily invested in this feud from the start. It made NXT must-watch TV in 2018 and will probably do the same thing in 2019.

Let us know in the comments as to what your feud of 2018 should be.

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