After watching Summer Slam, I had this thought in my head that I had spent an inordinate amount of time throughout the weekend watching a whole lot of mediocre wrestling. However, despite the fact that I was looking forward to, and accordingly planned my evenings to watch both NXT TakeOver: Toronto and Summer Slam, in all honesty, I didn’t really think that there was any particular matches that I thought were going to be great.
Naturally, I prioritized TakeOver over Summer Slam, in spite of their perceived importance, and at least in my opinion, I wasn’t wrong in the fact that TakeOver was the better show. The Summer Slam card was pretty weak, and the only match that really truly got me excited at any point was the Charlotte Flair vs. Trish Stratus match. Becky and Natalya wasn’t a bad match, Ziggler getting squashed by Goldberg is an embarrassment to the company, Styles and Ricochet was okay, but nowhere near as good as their combined potential should have made it. Bayley vs. Ember Moon exposed both wrestlers as good workers, but need someone to carry them to outstanding matches, and Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon just had no real emotion behind it. Kofi and Orton was lame now as it was the 10 other times it’s happened in the last 12 years, Finn Balor getting basically squashed by a yet-again-and-again repackaged Bray Wyatt is going to lead nowhere, and Seth Rollins basically spoiled the entire match by guaranteeing a win the week prior.
It was a mediocre show, and it really got me wondering why I put so much effort into keeping track of it sometimes. Yet, I still feel this allegiance to the company that helped raise me, especially when compared to the rising AEW and other alternatives.
But back to TakeOver, it too was a slightly sub-par show in my opinion; it still makes it a better show than Summer Slam, since NXT’s bar is set so high, but in the grand scheme of things, I still think it was less than as good as I hoped it would be. The best match of the night was undeniably the Street Profits vs. the Undisputed Era, which shouldn’t be surprising, because when you get four talented guys in a single fall tag team match, good things are capable of happening. Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne probably would’ve been better if it were a one-on-one match, but as often times is the case with the WWE, they love multi-competitor matches, and in my opinion, it tends to water things down.
Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim was a pretty solid match, but I feel like NXT is going to get themselves in trouble if they continue to bury their entire women’s division to Baszler; they simply don’t have the depth to make her as unbeatable as they’ve done over the last year. With Ember Moon, Kairi Sane, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai and now Mia Yim now in the dust, they don’t really have anyone else to pose a threat unless they cop out and do some sort of convoluted multi-women bought where Baszler will lose without getting pinned or some shit, and that’s more of a Vince McMahon cop out than a Triple H one.
Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano III was pretty decent, but by now I think NXT went to the well once too many by having the third edition of the matchup. Sure, there was a good buildup and good emotion in the match itself, but after three TakeOvers in a row, there was simply nothing new to see. Even if they introduced a cage and weapons, those don’t always necessarily make matches better, and honestly I guess I’m too old school to think they’re as much enhancements to a match as much as they are dangerous gimmicks that put the competitor’s physical well beings in jeopardy.
But to get to the whole point of this whole post, Johnny Gargano losing was about as safe as a bet as betting on Shaq missing free throws. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve grown to like Johnny Gargano a tremendous amount, especially after his feud with Andrade Cien Almas a year ago, but the fact of the matter is that Johnny Gargano is basically NXT’s version of Tommy Dreamer: he just never fucking wins.
Sure, he’s won matches that have gotten him the NXT North American Championship and NXT Championship respectively at different times, but he would then go on to lose both titles in his very first televised defenses of each. I don’t have the capacity to check, but I’m pretty sure DIY also lost the tag belts in their very first defense, against the Authors of Pain a few years ago too, adding to the narrative that Johnny Gargano always loses.
The point is, Johnny Gargano, as talented of a worker he is, has basically been made into NXT’s punching bag / jobber to the stars, and it’s probably not going to get better if he is actually getting his demotion-promotion to the main roster. He’s basically the Tommy Dreamer of NXT, and as well-respected he was, it doesn’t change the fact that he was most notable as the guy who always lost the big matches.
By design, I didn’t mention the Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae match earlier, because I had to say my piece about LeRae’s real-life husband Gargano first. Their match was definitely one of the better matches of the night, because much like Gargano, LeRae is a tremendous worker on the women’s side, but the stigma is no safer for her than it is her husband, because she always loses too, and everyone knows she’s going to lose.
Frankly, it makes me curious about both Johnny and Candice Dreamer; a lot of stars from the indies have managed to shake their indy stigmas and pay their dues, but for whatever reason, NXT continues to job them out like they’re the Bushwackers. And I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if, especially for the case of Johnny, the jobbing isn’t over. Call it a wild hypothesis, but I feel like Johnny Gargano is going to either go down to Evolve, or Austin Theory is going to come up to NXT, but I think there’s still one more job for ol’ Johnny Dreamer before he gets demoted to the main roster.
