Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa, WWE NXT Takeover New Orleans (4/7/2018)

This was an Unsanctioned Match, in which if Gargano won, he would be reinstated to the NXT roster.

As with the previous Takeover’s big Gargano main event, affectionately known as John Boy’s Jerk Off Party among the members of the oft-referenced Slack chat (due to me repeatedly referring to it as “John Boy’s little jerk off party” until capital letters came into play and it gained an official name), I know what you want out of me out of this spiritual successor.

What you want is something mean. Maybe long and maybe short, but definitely mean.

Being John Boy’s Tear Jerker and all, you would like to read another thing about a big NXT match with ~emotions~ that makes sure you knows how emotional it is at all times and feels phony as a result, as compared to (slightly) more restrained big payoffs like Zayn/Neville or Bayley/Sasha in the past. Big faces, constantly. Everything is the biggest. Bullshit Shawn Michaelsism where every feeling is at a 15 out of 10, the idea of playing to the back row taking to an embarrassing extreme, every little thing yelled about on commentary with the most annoying man in the world and his cohorts literally saying [x spot] is a metaphor because you are too dumb to think of anything for yourself, everything we think about with this brand from 2019 to the present or so. You’d like to read about this as patient zero for everything that went wrong with NXT.

You might also want me to talk about it being far too long, an incredible twenty or twenty five minute brawl shoved into a thirty seven minute and forced to make up that time through any number of ways, from things that should not be kicked out of (top rope Project Ciampa), things that could easily be cut out, classic WWE style pauses long after they’re necessary, all of that. Maybe a bit about how, with a little (a lot) of blood, I could really really really get into this on a much higher level. The crutches used to great effect here also clearly come from a planted fan, maybe the most obvious plant in recent wrestling history. Maybe, you would also like to hear about how the triumph at the end of it doesn’t work out all that well for me, because I find Johnny Gargano to be a weirdly offputting presence, and it is not enough simply to want to see a despicable heel eat shit, you also need to want to see somebody succeed to create those truly great payoffs, as NXT had done in the past with its two greatest protagonists.

I know that’s what you want. Two thousand words, seventeen hundred of them negative, frothing at the mouth, all of that. I understand my audience, or at least a significant part of it.

TOUGH SHIT.

Yes, most of that is true, if not all of it.

Honestly, there’s a lot wrong with this, as listed above, and it was and is still (although not as much) real alienating to have never loved it. This isn’t a new thought on this site exactly, but again, there is no more frustrating feeling than not liking a match as much as everyone else. To hate something is freeing in a way. You are free to froth at the mouth, write at length about a thing, all of that. It’s an animating sort of a feeling, a call to action. The act of still liking something a lot though, but being kind of stunned at how much more people liked it than you did — especially if those people are people you otherwise share most opinions with — is a truly confusing one. There’s a guilt, I’ve found, that comes with complaining. You don’t really want to, because you did still enjoy it a lot, but something eats at you about the amount of praise it gets relative to things you liked way more. It is easy to deal with I don’t get it, while I don’t get it to this extent is a far more baffling thing. It has a way of gnawing away at a match of this caliber, something truly great being always slightly tinged by the way you felt compared to the way everyone else feels.

The thing is more that, half a decade later, I don’t really care all that much. Yeah, I am never going to love this, but I also get the feeling that a good chunk of the people who really loved this at the time also don’t quite feel the same way, so whatever.

In spite of every major flaw against it, I cannot tell you that this didn’t rock also.

Composition and execution wise, and looking at it independent of all of the things they just were not allowed to do or that they were maybe forced into on some institutional type of level, the shit is just very strong. The construction is almost perfect. There’s never a moment in this where I think that the biggest thing or the coolest thing in the match has already happened. In terms of the performances. Likewise, speaking of the performances individually, I think they do so much well. Ciampa is never at all likeable or admirable and Gargano does a best he can to run the other way away from that. A thirty seven minute move-based blowoff match would go in a lot of different bad directions, but Gargano always gets his part right. He starts angry, stays desperate, and always feels like he’s really trying to get revenge.

For whatever other directions the thing winds up taking, when it gets down to the two of them, it works.

Gargano avoids the fake out plead for forgiveness, this being an imitation Generico/Steen and all, and goes into an STF GargaNo Escape, now using Ciampa’s discarded knee brace, and gets the win. As much as grappling with the moral cost of revenge might fascinate as an intellectual exercise, nothing feels quite as good or correct in this genre of entertainment as revenge does, and above every sequel and would-be successor to this match, that’s what this really has to offer. 

John Boy’s Tear Jerker might not move me to that, but given what it is — everything that it could have been, everything later attempts became — it’s still very very impressive. If not my match of the year, or really even close, a totally undeniable miracle the likes of which this brand would probably never touch again in a main event, and also never quite recover from.

Not the high point of NXT exactly, but the clear point in retrospect, or at least somewhere near that point, at which the wave finally broke.

***1/6

Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano, WWE NXT Takeover Philadelphia (1/27/2018)

This was for Almas’ NXT Title.

At one point in time, there was a genuine discussion over whether or not this was a top five to ten WWE match ever.

I know this is maybe incredibly rude to anyone who, at the time, participated in such a discussion, but if you were a part of that and are currently reading this, I would like for you to be as embarrassed as possible for thinking this NXT ass Shawn Michaels brain ass match, that while totally okay (borderline three boy), was genuinely on the level of being a top ten match of all time in the most storied wrestling promotion in North American History.

Say what you’d like to, WWE history is not exactly NJPW or AJPW or really even like ROH or, idk, BattlARTS history, but I mean, Jesus Christ, you guys.

 

 

Johnny Gargano vs. Kassius Ohno, WWE NXT (12/6/2017)

Despite wrestling in a basketball jersey now, one that makes for a truly ridiculous look when paired with short trunks, very little has changed for Kassius Ohno in the years since these two last met.

That is to say that this is booked, once more, largely to benefit Johnny Gargano, utilizing the talents and skills of one of the best wrestlers of this generation to make him look as good as possible. This time, not as champion so much as a future challenger being built up to contend for a title, but it is very much the same idea. Giving Gargano ten to twenty minutes in a ring with a wrestler this great to shine him up real nice, in whatever form that takes with their current incarnations.

Of course, very little has changed in the sense as well that, despite minor frustrations, this match up absolutely rocks.

The major changes here from their last encounters — Gargano having found something as a babyface in the time since, the benefits of WWE television in that this is a little more coherent, tighter, and nobody does a Pedigree one-count kickout spot — only benefit the match. What worked about this in  the past works here. Ohno is so great. The striking, the bumping, gradually selling more and more, managing to circumvent his bad booking to seem like an actual threat to win a match like this, it’s all so impressive. In a year where he barely got to show that (even compared to years like 2018 and 2019, where he at least had some more chances in various NXT systems to show off), it’s such a treat. Likewise, while Gargano is not my favorite guy in the world and while I don’t find him likeable as a babyface, it’s clearly something that at this point, is really clicking and that he has a talent for compared to everything else. I don’t really feel like he’s genuine, but in terms of match construction and all of that, he’s so much better as a solo babyface than he ever was or would be again on the other side.

Plug their talents into the easiest possible thing, Hero walloping John Boy until he uses his speed and craftiness to slip into his hold, and it not only results in a great match, but an even rarer thing in a match genuinely worth watching 2017 NXT television for.

A credit to the system as, if you can get past the silly outfit and other smaller issues with the presentation of the thing (Mauro, WWE production, booking John Boy as the top babyface of a brand), it’s clearly the best version of this match up that we’ve seen yet, and as their careers have gone since, the best version we’ll probably ever see.

***1/4

Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade Almas, WWE NXT Takeover Brooklyn III (8/19/2017)

Something close to the ideal opener, at least in this environment and at this time and in this specific place. It’s not the greatest match of all time, I don’t think it belongs on too many year end lists, and its most fervent supporters go too far, but its a tremendous little opening match, a modern version of something close to the old WCW cruiserweight division ideal.

That’s not to say that this is exactly a perfect match.

It can get a little NXT-y in terms of the faces and the presentation, Johnny Gargano can be sort of innately annoying sometimes, the gloss and sheen over the whole thing, et cetera. Almas spends a chunk of time here doing arm work that has no real value to the rest of the match and that, while Gargano does a decent enough job with, doesn’t exactly lead to some revelatory performance on the other end.

Mostly though, it is kind of the ideal version of the entire NXT experience.

A first time match between two stars from wildly different universes, in front of a white hot crowd, and with the loosest possible story based more on character arcs (Almas’ more serious approach with a new manager vs. Gargano’s post-DIY distraction) than any true feud between the two providing a simple framework for them to go nuts. Mechanically speaking, it’s as good as it can be, two very athletic wrestlers with a lot of neat offense and real gifts for crispness, set up, an execution, delivering the goods as they feel like they always will together. The “ideal version” bit does a lot of the heavy lifting here too, limiting them to a nice and tidy thirteen minutes, rather than making the mistake of allowing them half an hour like their later and more famous match would, and leaving less time for them to get into having an NXT Feelings Epic, instead just showing a little bit of it at the end.

There’s a real gentle mixture to matches like this, and this is a one that gets it nearly completely right.

Zelina Vega throws in a DIY shirt at the end, and when distracted by having too many Feelings, John Boy gets trucked and loses to the Hammerlock DDT.

One of the year’s standouts in its category, both in terms of openers and of NXT matches in general, and in retrospect, pretty easily the best match that these two will ever have against each other.

***1/4

DIY vs. The Authors of Pain, WWE NXT Takeover San Antonio (1/28/2017)

This was for Gargano and Ciampa’s NXT Tag Team Titles.

Akam and Razar, the Authors of Pain, are not especially great. Simple power offense, your classic kind of WWE system team that ultimately falls apart once a safety net is removed. It’s been happening for over two decades, it’ll probably keep happening forever. Whatever. The point is that, despite not having great reserves of skill, this is an environment — both on a Takeover when that still felt special and against a team like DIY — in which they cannot fail.

Ciampa and Gargano die bumping, deliver sympathetic performances and energetic hot tags and comeback runs, and the whole thing works as a result.

It’s a delightfully easy kind of a story and a match, underdogs getting caught and gunned down, luck running out, and so forth. The difference lies once again in the way these big Takeover matches are plotted out, so as to create these hyperdramatic moments of near victory, and in this case, of crushing defeat. Gargano and Ciampa work their way to the same situation in which they beat The Revival last time out, only for the disgusting Albanian boys to power out and ruin the dream.

While ultimately wasted on a failed project like this, the idea that WWE is only ever about moments has made its way to NXT by now (arguably it was always there, baked into the thing on a level beneath where anyone could see it), and this is a wonderfully executed little piece of business. Nobody who wasn’t in embarrassingly deep ever thought of the Authors of Pain as anything more than this classic WWE care about them for a year and then abandon them big guy team, but great is great, and this is a god damned great little piece of business.

The least of the Takeover Tag Title matches in a bit, but still a wholly impressive and perfect sort of application of formula.

***

 

DIY vs. The Revival, WWE NXT (1/11/2017)

This was for John Boy and Ciampa’s NXT Tag Team Titles.

It’s the forgotten match of their three title matches together (not just by you, but by me as well when initially putting together the 2017 watchlist), and not just because it was on weekly NXT at a point when a lot of people had stopped consuming this on a week-to-week basis, and also happening in front of a crowd once again burnt out by Full Sail tapings as opposed to white hot Brooklyn and Toronto crowds.

What’s here clearly lacks the ambition of those Takeover matches in 2016, the spirit of the thing feeling more like throwing one more out there to fill up a weekly main event slot, the house show version of the thing, rather than those other matches that clearly set out not only to deliver the best match on a significant show, but deliver something real special in a longer lasting sense. It’s not the greatest crime in the world, showing up to just have a great regular level television match, but it is pretty easy to see why it wound up forgotten about.

Still!

There’s a lot to like here, and as with the previous match ups, it’s a match that offers up the goods on a few different levels.

In a mechanical sense, they do it again.

For the third time, this is a match with so many cool little shifts and changes and cut offs and counters. It’s crisp and exciting, really well put together, and another victory for the entire idea of this match up. Gargano’s knee selling is also genuinely pretty good. Imperfect, of course, as he is who he is, but between resting off the tag and always hobbling in some way after that, it’s again a level of effort and care that goes a long way. This match isn’t really one for major nearfalls or high level dramatic moments, but what it does offer up is predictably great, and to their credit, all new.

Story wise, it’s another hit and the perfect ending to this series.

The Revival goes after John Boy’s leg within the first few minutes, not only going back to what worked in the match that they won, but no longer wasting time about it. There’s an urgency and meanness on a level that they didn’t quite show before. All the same, when Ciampa can get in and Gargano’s leg heals enough to help out, The Revival never seem like they have a real chance. The late match dirty tricks work, the Shatter Machine is cut off on top of every other double team they try, and the DIY Sandwich Boy shuts them down at the end, really coming off as a period at the end of a story in a match that had the potential to keep it going. For all that the previous matches had to say about Gargano and Ciampa’s struggles to get past The Revival, they’re past them now, and this feels like a match in which one team has the other totally figured out. The professional wrestling version of a fearsome offensive or defensive scheme totally solved after a big game finally broke it open.

The problem of the match, at least compared to the previous successes, is that something simple and good is all that they really aim for. The drama of the past matches isn’t quite there, they don’t aim as high in terms of what they’re doing on offense or the sheer amount of twists and turns thrown in. It’s an interesting approach, DIY having now totally figured this out and looking like the totally unquestioned dominant force in the division, and it’s an idea that does a lot for me as a result of how different it is from how these things often go. Still, it’s the more relaxed nature of the match that ultimately makes this the clear third of their three matches together.

Exactly what you’d expect, a neat television style rematch of one of the decade’s great large event pairings. Not quite one just for the completionists out there, still being a pretty great match, but definitely inessential despite its own greatness.

***

The Revival vs. DIY, WWE NXT Takeover Toronto (11/19/2016)

This was a Two of Three Falls match for The Revival’s NXT Tag Team Titles.

It’s an easy sort of a thing now to make fun of “peak” NXT. (I mean to me, the peak is 2013-2015, but I know that’s not what people usually mean.) I’ve done it before myself a whole lot, and as long as we’re making fun of the right stuff, I’m probably going to keep doing it in the future. t’s a fun thing to do, especially when were talking about everything after spring 2018.

However, when the whole thing really worked, there are some things — like a Neville/Zayn or a Sasha/Bayley — that are just perfect, even still all these years later.

Everything comes together not as some machine kicked back into life and running perfectly as the best WWE stuff of the 2010s tends to be, but instead as a machine running at something close to peak form in a continual process. There is a formula to this NXT stuff, babyfaces we genuinely like (Gargano is not Zayn or Bayley, but in for a few years here, he was a genuinely likeable babyface presence) finding ways to overcome challenges that they faltered in the faces of before, and finding a way to achieve. Classic classic professional wrestling. It’s not so much a heaping of magic that wasn’t there before but that can always be there, but one of a few heights of something running at an incredibly high level on these big events. Not an example of what can be, but the best example of what currently is.

This is one such occasion, one of those perfect distillations of the entire enterprise. One of a select few entries on NXT’s Mount Rushmore, with the fourth and final involving two of the men in this match as well.

Like those other matches, it is maybe not entirely perfect or entirely airtight. There some NXT Faces to be found in this match, even if they would get a thousand times worse later on. Not everything that they do works out perfectly and there are a few sequences here and there that cross over the border from impressive into a little ridiculous, sometimes aided by a faulty little movement and sometimes just because there’s one step in the process too many. Ciampa’s hot tag is also not especially great, and is the weaker part of all of this, given what naturals The Revival and Gargano are in their roles.

None of that matters. You don’t give a shit, seven years later and counting, that all the punches and elbows in Bayley vs. Sasha weren’t perfect. The smaller issues with this match are just that. They stand out when it’s end of the year nut cutting time between a bunch of different fellow all-time level matches, but not really anywhere else. They are especially dwarfed in comparison to every other thing that this match gets 100% completely and totally correct.

Which is to say, all the coolest and most important stuff about wrestling.

Firstly, of course, that means a clear and easy story that everyone cares about. Our Heroes rise up and overcome the bullies who’ve cut them off at the pass for months and months now, including issuing a devastating defeat the last time they met for the titles. That’s not to say this story is a simple one, good guys overcoming bad guys in short, because as with anything really worth caring about, there are games within the game. It’s as much about that longer journey and more simplified tale as it is about things like Ciampa and Gargano almost losing each other in The Revival’s faster paced match like they did in Brooklyn, about getting the teamwork right, or about Gargano’s previous bad knee being attacked, only for both him to overcome it on an individual basis and for Ciampa to stop the other man in a way that he wasn’t able to do before. All the little games struggled in and eventually overcome make the larger one, when they’re able to get it done in that iconic double submission shot, feel like that much more significant of a victory.

In other areas, it is nearly perfect.

The Revival have had a bunch of great matches, here and in the future elsewhere, generally all employing the same general idea. A bunch of really cool shit and modern pacing, but adhering to the classic principles. It’s hardly an original idea, people have been doing that for 30 years and they’ll keep doing it as long as there are expectations and established routines to subvert, in wrestling and every other genre and subgenre of media. Of all of the versions of this in wrestling, this is one of the few very finest that I’ve ever seen in my life.

Mechanically speaking, everyone here is great. Even a weaker link like Ciampa doesn’t really do anything wrong, in so far as what he can himself control about his role in the match. Gargano’s knee selling at the very end is once again both sympathetic and functional, walking a tightrope there perfectly much in the same way he did in August. Both Revival members are perfect in their own roles too, managing to stooge and take these huge bumps and eventually eat shit without it ever feeling phony or like any part of an act. It’s balanced out by how mean they are in offense, both in terms of what they’re doing and the way in which they do it, allowing so little daylight in any direction. They work both with a snap and a snarl, physically delivering everything with a lot of force, but always looking so intent and in the moment as well.

On a construction level, this is immaculate, and it goes hand in hand with the story told.

For the duration of the match, there are roughly one hundred ideas teased and paid off. From those larger stories of the match to more mechanical ideas, ways to avoid double teams, and different way things work out. Gargano’s first big comeback almost immediately cut off into the Shatter Machine for that first fall to a shockingly long period of control. They cut off hot tags and little hope spots to the extent that the tag itself finally happening feels like its own achievement. Ciampa’s tag goes poorly, leading to it feeling like its own little success when Gargano’s able to help him and things go just right enough for them to get the sandwich spot and even it up.

The last fall in particular is a stunning achievement in terms of doing all of these incredibly dramatic things, and not only getting so much out of every single nearfall in terms of believable finishes, but in terms of the way it’s laid out. It’s the sort of a match that moves with such confidence and purpose that it’s hard to tell if everything that they do is the best possible way to do it, or if it simply feels correct because of a kind of force of not only talent but of pure will as well. It’s a hell of a god damned thing, all leading to the previously mentioned finish. Gargano getting his hold on to thwart the return to the leg work, Ciampa finding a way to make a difference this time, and The Revival no longer able to save each other.

It’s perfect payoff, not only to the last year of The Revival with the Tag Titles, these plans all finally faltering and blowing up in their faces, but of Ciampa and Gargano’s chase since coming into NXT a little over a year prior. It’s a match full of little teases and callbacks, but done without any of it becoming overpowering, instead managing to naturally fit them into a match that is the purest ever distillation of The Revival’s tag team style and ideology. The career work of everyone involved to date.

A genuine masterpiece.

****

Johnny Gargano vs. TJ Perkins, WWE Cruiserweight Classic (8/24/2016)

This was a 2nd Round match in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

Another match that is, more or less, just another EVOLVE match inside of a WWE ring. Another match in this tournament that is really pretty god damned great and better than one might imagine on paper. Smooth and crisp, full of cool counters and great examples of slow escalation in a match that moves this fast, counters and failed attempts paid off later in the match resulting in a real sense of accomplishment. Also a great example, yet again, of tournament booking, with things that worked in the first round being leveled up and having to be worked towards as the competition becomes harder.

Things of that nature.

More importantly and far more impressively, it’s a phenomenal show of foresight from the WWE of all places, telling a story related to prior events before said prior events had really even ever happened. In a match taped before Takeover Brooklyn II happened, this match revolves around a lingering injury to John Boy that happened in that match. While not a major focus — a positive, given the way he wrestles and also because the live crowd obviously didn’t see the match setting this up and so you can play off a minor injury as something sudden — it’s always there and the match winds up being a struggle for Perkins to finally get to that leg. When he does, it’s not long before the match is over as a result of the double leglock.

Again, we’re not talking about the most complex stuff in the world here, but it’s a lovely bit of a sensible surprise from a company that so often fails to be either sensible or surprising.

Not the best match in the tournament so far or really even close, but when one accounts for the planning that went into it, one of the tournament’s more impressive offerings.

***

The Revival vs. DIY, WWE NXT Takeover Brooklyn II (8/20/2016)

This was for The Revival’s NXT Tag Team Titles.

While the American Alpha vs. The Revival series is what caused people to really take notice, the secret is that Gargano and Ciampa are actually a way better match up for them. This series being great is not a secret, it hitting higher highs than any other NXT tag team pairing ever is largely accepted as canon, but I don’t think the reasons why are quite talked about enough. While Jordan and Gable could do all of these things and had credentials and hit all those Steiners x RNRX buttons that played off of what The Revival presented themselves as, Gargano and Ciampa align much more closely with what they actually are.

Once again, it’s all a bit, the old school stuff. Sure, there’s some stuff taken and the right lessons learned and applied, but it’s amplified as an act. The old “yourself, turned up to 11” concept, only applied to tape nerds. The Revival aren’t REALLY the diehard sort of JCP acolytes they present themselves as, like all the cool modern moves and sequences would show you, just like how guys like a Dean Malenko or Ted DiBiase weren’t really in the class of the very best technical wrestlers in the world. It’s a riff off of the greatest gimmick in wrestling history, the evolution of the classic “good wrestler” bit, only now with the influences yelled at you. Homages taken to a logical extreme so as to be as annoying as possible, aided inadvertently by how dumb so many other things in wrestling are. It’s one of the most successful gimmicks of the past decade, to the point that people online that we all know have been genuinely duped by it.

In short, it’s a work, kid.

Gargano and Ciampa fit with The Revival in a way that almost no other team ever has (save for The Briscoes who weirdly immediately understood “cool moves in the old formulas” as if they had been doing that exactly for twenty years). It’s hard to say why, I don’t think you can really put it down to any one thing, because I’ve been trying for a little bit now when writing this to do that. I think, mostly, it’s that all their cool, fast, and streamlined offense fits into what The Revival does better than anyone’s throwback offense. They’re able to hit the “modern offense” part entirely, but without ever getting too silly there. The match still has its homages here and there, particularly the old double face off spot after an early spot of action, but it feels so much more natural with these guys. While other teams have played the role of something else, always with the faint scent of imitation making it feel less than, DIY are the perfect opponents for The Revival because they feel the most authentic in those roles, being a likeable team who people wanted to see succeed.

Fittingly, it’s only once the focus is more on the modern aspects of the act that it begins to genuinely feel authentic, colossal shitbags standing in the way of Our Heroes and their hopes and dreams. The motions feel more at home in 2016 than 1986, but the feeling of the thing is, finally, more universal.

In short, you can’t force it.

Gorgeous stuff.

The match itself is the best application of classic tag formula you’ll find anywhere.

All of the bits The Revival teased in all those American Alpha matches are done here, but twice as fast and without the hint of a stutter.

The formula is what it always is, and it’s better than it’s ever been in a Revival match. They get a little more complex than ever before. An extra step here or there, but always set up in a careful way. Where the Revival/AA matches often saw these bits where Gable or Jordan avoided the first thing only to get hit by the second, these matches take it a step further. Avoiding the second thing, only to be hit by the third. Often times, those moments are preceded by avoiding the first and second things, hitting back, and making them fight for the third like they haven’t before, adding a real sense of accomplishment to it. The old tenants of The Revival’s matches, except stretched further, given more weight, and often coming about in cooler and more inventive ways than ever before.

In terms of pure excitement in the back half, it’s also The Revival’s best work yet, dropping roughly a thousand great nearfalls, ranging from adjusted old classics like the a double team block into a cradle to the much bigger stuff. The old double team block into a cradle also winds up being its own building block, enhancing a later version of the move when it’s the Shatter Machine blocked into a cradle as a result of a similar move already getting a close nearfall and the match having escalated significantly since then.

Beautifully, after all these Revival matches coming where they win in a pretty way, cleanly set up or not, it’s here where they get outright nasty for the first time in a while. After putting Dash’s foot on the ropes from outside to save the match, Dawson’s able to post Chomper outside, opening Gargano up for a nasty chop block. The old deathlock/flying stomp follows, and John Boy taps to the Reverse Figure Four. It’s another little sample of what The Revival is. Not only something cool, but something cool enhanced through due diligence. After all those matches winning with something fancy, something like this has a lot more impact. After a match so much about science and the sorts of sequences that feel like an all-time great coach drew them up on a whiteboard at ringside, something simple and nasty stands out so much more. It stands out because they took the time and effort to create a match in which something like that would stand out.

It’s a heartbreaker precisely because they bothered creating a match that had this much heart to begin with.

The Revival have had a few matches as great as this, if not better, but I think it’s here where they deliver their clearest mission statement ever. Not the absolute 100% best work of their entire careers, but if you have to put The Revival into a bottle and explain what they are, what they were best it, and all they could do and believed in, it’s here. Incredibly cool moves, inventive sequences, all the hot nearfalls in the world, but tied into a match in a way where they enhance something that’s already incredibly strong.

Not the best Revival match, but the perfect mission statement, frozen in amber.

The hits are the hits for a reason. The classics are the classics for a reason.

Perfect tag team wrestling.

***1/2

Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa, WWE Cruiserweight Classic (8/3/2016)

This was a first round match in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament.

Given all that follows, from one of the worst matches of all time to all the 2018 Feelings Epics, great and otherwise, it’s easy to forget about a match like this.

It’s a shame, because outside of the one major hit later on, this is probably the best of the bunch.

There’s a little bit of the classic complisult (part compliment, part insult. He invented it, I coined the term. See what I just did there? That’s an explanibrag.) to that, given what their matches turned into. Neither was especially suited for real long matches, and the addition of the influence of a real all-time dullard only exacerbated the situation. What they’re far more suited to is a match like this. Short at eleven or twelve minutes tops, snappy as hell, and with a simple line through the entire thing to help them out.

Simply put, this is a match between tag partners.

That lends itself to knowing each other pretty well, to create a few great counters, but it also means that there’s just a little hesitance. Ciampa’s a psycho and gets early advantages by being more willing to flip that switch into higher impact violence than the cleaner and more scientific John Boy, but he’s hesitant to finish the job. He pauses at a few key moments where he wouldn’t otherwise, unable to drop the bare knee. Gargano isn’t any less hesitant than Ciampa, but he also isn’t wrestling a match that requires a lot of violence. He’s flying and going for his hold, and grabbing cradles, and that difference proves to help him out in the end.

One is limited in this match, and the other isn’t.

It’s no surprise that the latter of the two wins out.

Shortly after his hesitation, Ciampa winds up missing the armbar he adopted/stole from Mark Haskins, as Gargano rolls through it an then right into a crucifix pin for the win. A great piece of logic to help explain why the match went like it did, and somehow, the sort of thing that actually matters more than six months later as well. This whole tournament feels like something out of another world, a much better one, but this match especially if only because there’s also a level of promotional competence and forward-thinking vision that you don’t often get here.

A lovely little thing, not only a great match, but something close to a best case scenario for this division in realistic terms, blending a great but not overpowering story with a whole lot of cool stuff. One of the rare matches in this division that feels like what the WCW cruiserweight division actually would have become by now, because it’s a whole lot like what it used to be at its best.

***1/4