It’s hard to not expect greatness when you see Johnny Gargano in a Takeover match.
The man has built a reputation out of putting amazing matches on these events, from tag team masterclasses in DIY to last year’s classic against Andrade at Takeover: Philadelphia.
Gargano’s grasp of storytelling and ring psychology is on another level. He takes into account his opponent’s styles and adjusts his work accordingly. He allowed Andrade to showcase his luchador skills, while with Ciampa it was often an all out brawl that allowed the latter to show off his physicality. This time, however, he was facing off against Ricochet, a phenomenally gifted athlete who moves with lightning speed and floats through the air as though he is weightless.
The match started off with the two trading holds, sizing each other up. The story of this match was whether Gargano would be able to outmaneuver Ricochet, who outmatched him in terms of speed and high flying maneuvers.
There is a cool spot early on where Gargano went for a kick to Ricochet’s chin who quickly rolled away, still remembering how Gargano’s superkick felt from a couple weeks ago.
The two kept testing each other as the pacing increased, doing a series of reversals as they attempted to land blows on each other. There’s a beautiful spot where, failing to execute a crucifix on Ricochet, Gargano tried a hurricanrana and Ricochet simply landed on his feet. Gargano tried the hurricanrana again and Ricochet was on his feet again as well.
Gargano looked up at Ricochet in disbelief. What did he have to do to put this guy away?
Ricochet offered his hand, asking which Johnny Gargano he was going to be. Gargano responded with an elbow to the head.
As the match progressed, Gargano kept looking for ways to dodge Ricochet’s high flying arsenal, but Ricochet adapted and found his mark more often than not. There’s a moment where he hit a moonsault on Gargano outside the ring by running up the ring post and launching off it, where it looked like poetry in motion.
Nigel McGuiness put it beautifully when he said, “it’s as though gravity just took a break.”
Gargano upped his physicality to combat Ricochet’s innovative offense, mixing up his ouevre with a series of submissions, targeting Ricochet’s limbs to limit his movement. Riochcet recovered soon enough, however, countering Gargano’s attempt at a slingshot DDT with a standing moonsault. Following a series of hard-hitting strikes, Ricochet hit Gargano with a springboard European uppercut before picking him up for a northern lights suplex and a brainbuster, getting a close two counts from the subsequent pin.
Gargano struck soon afterwards when he found an opening, countering Ricochet’s attempt at a moonsault into a sit-down powerbomb, then following it up with a crossface, and attempting to transition to a Gargano Escape. Gargano was thwarted a second time for the slingshot DDT, however, as Ricochet caught him midair and dumped him outside the ring.
At this point, it was becoming clear that Gargano would have to do something else to conquer Ricochet, who was looking more and more dominant as the match progressed.
In what is, perhaps, the stand out moment of the match, Ricochet countered an attempted frankensteiner from the top rope by Gargano, attempting to execute a sit down powerbomb. Gargano, however, recovered and attempted another frankensteiner, flipping Ricochet, who once again landed on his feet.
Gargano couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The audience didn’t, either.
Ricochet’s athleticism was without question, but Gargano’s resolve was nearly limitless as well. It was simply a question of who would slip up before the other.
Gargano finally managed to lock in the Gargano Escape. However, Ricochet deadlifted him out of the lock and threw him at the corner turnbuckle. He soon followed up with a fantastic springboard 450, and went for a cover, but Gargano kicked out at the last possible second. Gargano caught Ricochet in a roll up after the latter tried a Shooting Star Press, but Ricochet kicked out as well.
Gargano, desperate and near the end of his wits, superkicked Ricochet out of the ring and went for a Tope Suicida. Ricochet, however, caught Gargano midair, hoisting him up on his shoulders. Before he could do anything else, however, Gargano nailed him with a frankensteiner, smashing Ricochet’s head straight at the floor. That’s probably one of the sickest bumps of the match overall. Gargano finally nailed his slingshot DDT, but Ricochet still kicked out at two.
It’s clear by this point that this is already the match of the night, but no one had any idea how this was going to end.
Livid and frustrated, Gargano paced to the back of the ring, pulling apart the mat and exposing the concrete below. This is the same thing Ciampa did to him last year, and now he wanted to do the same to Ricochet.
At the last moment, however, Gargano relented and didn’t go through with it. He still had bits of his old conscience left, and he wanted to win this the old fashioned way.
Ricochet executed a comeback, going for a Phoenix Splash that Gargano dodged at the last moment. Gargano demolished Ricochet with a superkick in mid run, who twirled in mid air before flopping to the ground.
Ricochet, surprisingly, managed to lock Gargano in his own submission hold, the Gargano Escape, and after a few fraught seconds, Gargano escaped outside the ring.
The crowd was chanting fight forever at this point, and the way this match was going, they might as well have been.
With Ricochet prone at the side of the ring, Gargano’s expression darkened as he picked his opponent up and looked beside at the exposed concrete. Gargano drove Ricochet straight down with a sickening brainbuster. The last vestiges of his old self were gone.
Rolling Ricochet into the ring and climbing the ropes, Gargano lay in wait for Ricochet, his eyes darkened and mouth set.
As Ricochet slowly rose to his feet, Gargano pointed to himself and mouthed, I win.
Gargano drove Ricochet’s head into the mat with a second slingshot DDT. There’s a moment where Ricochet’s body seemed as though it was broken in half, his head still planted to the floor. Gargano covered him for the win, ending the match at twenty three minutes and thirty three seconds.
As his music hit, Gargano looked to the ceiling and smiled broadly in relief, still not quite believing that he managed to put Ricochet away for good. Johnny Takeover had finally captured NXT singles gold, in what’s probably the best WWE match of 2019.
What made this match so great is that it told its stories beautifully, both of Gargano giving into his dark side and his struggling to surmount the challenge of Ricochet.
Triple H weighed in on the match during an interview with the Mirror:
“I just can’t say enough about it. People, the words ‘match of the year’ are thrown around a lot, contender for match of the year already, match of the year this that and the other… but it’s hard not to think about it in that manner, when you see something like that already this early into the year.
You’re just exhausted at the end of it and I can’t imagine how they felt. Both of them just taking it to a whole ‘nother performance level tonight. And Gargano, showing the world maybe there is something to this new Johnny Gargano.You see the torment in him, he doesn’t want to make that decision, but then it works. It’s hard to deny it. People are going to say he’s become exactly what he hated but no, he’s becoming a champion, he’s becoming a winner, he’s becoming the best. He’s proving it to the world.
Is that enough for Johnny Gargano or does he need to be something more in his mind? Only he can make that decision, but he sure did look happy when he walked back out here at the end of the night, standing next to Tommaso Ciampa.
There seemed to be a moment of them being on the same page, there seemed to be a moment of we are together again, the best in the world. He seemed okay with it to me.”
Five Stars is a series where we review classic wrestling matches, break down the exciting moments and storytelling, and relieve what made them so great.
