Rivalry rekindled as Gargano falls in NXT Takeover: Philadelphia

Tommaso Ciampa attacked his former teammate Johnny Gargano after NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia. Photo from WWE.com

Johnny Gargano’s night went from bad to worse at NXT Takeover: Philadelphia.

Just moments after narrowly losing to Andrade “Cien” Almas in their NXT Championship match Sunday (Manila time) at Wells Fargo Center, the charismatic cruiserweight was nailed with a crutch to the back by his former DIY teammate Tommaso Ciampa as he ended the night on a pile of heap.

Gargano showed how big his heart is as he kept himself in step of Almas for the entirety of the match and almost claimed the biggest prize in the developmental ranks if not for the interference of Zelina Vega.

Luckily for him, his wife Candice LeRae came to the rescue and evened the odds, chasing the Vega out of the ring.

Unfortunately, Gargano was just at the wrong place at the wrong time as Almas pushed him to the ring post while they were on the ring apron and nailed the killer running double knee smash and followed it up with the elevated hammerlock DDT to score the three-count.

Aleister Black also topped Adam Cole in a hellacious Extreme Rules match after catching the leader of the Undisputed Era with the Black Mass.

Black was primed to get the victory after dropping Cole from a fireman’s carry to the back of two steel chairs and hitting a dropkick, but his foes cohorts Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish stopped the three count and nailed Black with the Enter the Dragon.

SAnitY would make the save to set the stage for Black hitting a double knee stomp on Cole onto the announce table before the two recovered and finished the match in the ring.

Ember Moon survived a tough challenge from Shayna Baszler as she retained her NXT Women’s Championship despite an injured left arm as she reversed her challenger’s armbar to a rollup.

Frustrated with the result, Baszler went berserk as she attacked Moon and locked her in a Kirifuda Clutch twice.

The Undisputed Era also edged the Authors of Pain to keep their NXT Tag Team Championships.

The former champs already nailed the current titlists with the Super Collider, but O’Reilly was able to reverse the powerbomb attempt as he head-scissored the injured Akam to his partner Rezar and rolled him up for the three-count.

The Velveteen Dream also came out on top of Kassius Ohno after nailing a Death Valley Driver and hitting a Purple Rainmaker for the victory.

Stories, however, weren’t limited in the ring for the night as independent scene standouts Trevor “Ricochet” Mann, EC 3, and War Machine were all spotted at ringside, potentially signaling their signing with the company.