Tommaso Ciampa is freaking injured!
Johnny will not get to fight him for the title at TakeOver!
Find out who he will face by reading on.
It appears to be a really diverse week for WWE fans.
They seem to be running the entire emotional gambit here!
Raw was boring, SmackDown was exciting and NXT was incredibly sad!
I‘m so sad right now!
I‘m getting depressed just thinking about it!
It feels like I‘m falling into a big black dark hole.
A black hole essentially.
Tommaso Ciampa had to get neck surgery.
He had to relinquish his title.
Goldie doesn‘t belong to him anymore.

But the saddest thing is that we won‘t get our fairy tale ending of Johnny taking the belt from his former partner.
Triple H opened the show and he said that he would‘ve loved to announce Johnny versus Ciampa, but he can‘t.
Instead he announced that johnny Gargano will indeed get his shot at the now vacant title.
But Tommaso Ciampa will be replaced.
The story years in the making will now always be without a proper ending.
I can‘t put into words how absolutely crushing that is!
Yes, sure, they could use that as a new chapter transition when Ciampa‘s heeled and recovered.
By that time Johnny‘s probably already gonna be on main and Ciampa could then attack him when he‘s having a title match, or something.
Just out of nowhere.
Or, even better, Johnny should already be a champ when Ciampa comes back.
Point is, there‘s things they can do to continue the story despite this set back, but all they‘ll ever do will not be as beautiful as it would‘ve been to see Johnny defeat Ciampa at TakeOver.
Well, that‘s life.
And now one of five men gets to fight his way into a 2-out-of-3 falls match against Johnny for the vacant belt.
Yes, that‘s right!
Fatal-5-way and the match‘ll be 2-out-of-3 falls.
With any other champion and story this would be a good substitute, but with Johnny and Tommasso?
Sorry, I‘ll always wonder what if!
But now let‘s wonder what‘ll be!
I think I don‘t want to have Johnny win the title when it‘s not against Ciampa.
Yeah, he shouldn‘t win this.

Today was all about the fatal-5-way match, but they had a few interview segments too. All the girls not named Shayna who‘ll compete for the title argued a bit, Forgotten Sons said they‘ll will win the Dusty Cup (I hope not) and Kona Reeves said it‘s a shame he‘s not in the fatal-5-way.
So yeah, nothing important.
That‘s life!
Ricochet vs. Adam Cole vs. Aleister Black vs. Velveteen Dream vs. Matt Riddle in a fatal-5-way match to determine Johnny Gargano‘s opponent at TakeOver for the vacant NXT Championship:

So, they had promos for the guys and they also showed a vid on Ciampa‘s injury.
But who do I want to win?
Well, when life gives you lemons make some freaking lemonade!
To me there‘s only two people who should win.
Either Matt Riddle because he‘s on a god damn roll or, my pick, Velveteen Dream.
Yes!
Make some lemonade!
He‘s already the North American champ, crowning him the NXT champion as well would absolutely create an unstoppable superstar!
Also, Velveteen beat Johnny for the title he now already has.
How poetic would it be if Johnny also failed against him for the big one?
That would create a feud for the ages!
Yeah, I want that, please!
Hell, if I can‘t have Ciampa versus Gargano, then I want to see my favorite wrestler win the belt!
Obviously!

Will I get to see my favorite wrestler (in NXT at least) win the belt?
Well, let‘s find out!
While this episode started on a really sad not there‘s no denying that the match we got was absolutely incredible.
They picked the five greatest and most popular stars on NXT and had them do whatever they wanted to.
Aleister Black renewed his rivalry with Velveteen, Adam heeled his way into playing spoiler for everybody, including yanking the ref out so that he couldn‘t count to three, there were fights on the outside, giant five man Suplexes from the top rope, Ricochet flying, Ale and Ric being friends, Matt Riddle doing bro stuff and suplexing everybody a couple times.
Yeah, this was good, really great even!
Just a giant extravaganza of a match!
Well, so who did actually win this?
Was it the bro?
Dream?

Nope!
While I didn‘t get the winner I wanted I‘m absolutely certain now that Johnny will not leave New York as the new champ.
Adam Cole (Baybay!) weaseled his way into the title picture, which is just awesome!
He kept saying that Undisputed would unlose everything and he might just start that trend by winning against Johnny.
I mean, he‘s got three friends with him.
Together they‘ll absolutely destroy Johnny, I truly believe that.
Now, Adam might not be my favorite man in the world, but I‘m all for dominant stables and Undisputed Era holding every belt is something I desperately want!
We‘ve got four belts and they‘ve got four people.
Make it happen, please.
But yes, let‘s some this up with the following words in Afrikaans:
Dit was wonderlik!
Rating: 4 out of 5

As I said before, while sadness reigned supreme the match we got was more than exceptional.
And we also got Triple H.
The rest however?
Well, there was only one match and about 20 minutes of nothing.
So, did I actually like this episode?
I guess.
I mean, this was the only way they could‘ve gone about it.
Adding other matches would‘ve just taken away from the importance of this number one contender match.
And that match was great, so by proxy the episode was also great.
I‘m still sad though.
Now, please let me go cry about Ciampa being injured.

Did you cry as well?
Tell me in the comments.
Feel free to share my misery with your friends.
I‘ll see you on Tuesday for Raw.
Have a great weekend!
Oh, and get well seoon, Tommaso Ciampa!
