Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were scheduled to conclude their rivalry at NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay in 2020, but the pandemic had other ideas.
Instead of battling in front of a packed Amalie Arena, Gargano and Ciampa finished their war in front of no one in an empty Full Sail.
Speaking to Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport, Gargano discussed his feud with Ciampa and why it might not be over.
"I don’t know, man. I think they took that ‘you’ve got to fight forever’ thing literally. Like you said, we haven’t been able to finish our story in front of a crowd, in front of a jam-packed crazy TakeOver audience, like we just haven’t been able to do it. Some would say that injuries actually helped our story, because obviously when Tommaso turned on me he went away for a little bit, which made the story go out even longer, which made the first match actually take forever to happen. That actually benefitted us, but lately that did not benefit us. Obviously, TakeOver: New York did not benefit us, and then TakeOver what was supposed to be Tampa did not benefit us. One day, I don’t know when, I don’t know where, I don’t know how, but I think the Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa storyline will end. I’m not saying it’s over now, but it’s on hold for however long," he said.
Gargano continued, discussing the possibility of the feud having a proper conclusion with fans now being back in arenas.
"Definitely, and you said it yourself, I think the story holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts, and I hit such a cord for a lot people," he said. "You mentioned New Orleans, I’ve never seen a crowd atmosphere like that, where he was so universally hated and I was so universally loved. That’s why we were super excited for TakeOver in Tampa, I think the story we were going to be able to tell up to that point would have been pretty wild, obviously that didn’t happen, but I think in both of our minds we’d like to finish the story in the right way."
Gargano and Ciampa both remain vital parts of NXT television with Gargano finding success as a heel alongside his family in The Way and Ciampa forming a formidable tag team with Timothy Thatcher.
Gargano had a chance to recapture the NXT Championship on Tuesday's NXT, but fell prey to Karrion Kross. If you missed anything from Tuesday's NXT, check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
