{"id":10220,"date":"2017-12-01T12:57:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=10220"},"modified":"2017-12-01T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T19:25:32","slug":"tommaso-ciampa-nearly-clear-nxt-takeover-main-event-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/12\/01\/tommaso-ciampa-nearly-clear-nxt-takeover-main-event-changed\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommaso Ciampa Nearly Clear, NXT Takeover Main Event Changed?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While the two could be unrelated, two separate pieces of news today could actually be affecting each other. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer recently mentioned to a fan on Twitter that he was under the impression Ciampa was returning soon, following his surgery from a ruptured ACL this past May at <em><strong>NXT Takeover: Chicago<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Not sure but it feels to me he should be close, he had several different surgeries, was working on a lot of hurt bodyparts. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wXcvKacPwo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/wXcvKacPwo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davemeltzerWON\/status\/936314526131142657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The injury couldn&#8217;t have come at a worse time, as Ciampa had just turned on his longtime tag team partner in <strong>#DIY<\/strong>, <strong>Johnny Gargano<\/strong>. Since then, Gargano has put in a holding pattern of sorts, with a short feud with <strong>Andrade &#8220;Cien&#8221; Almas<\/strong>, then a string of unusual losses. He got some redemption last week in a solid match against <strong>Pete Dunne<\/strong> for the WWE UK Championship. A returning Ciampa would mean that the revenge storyline feud of Ciampa vs Gargano would be able to kickstart again into 2018.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10222\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10222\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10222\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/diy-wwe-wwe-52017_f3v13a2pmc9c1cfywy5ezsicl-e1512150723628.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The potential for this clearance is what may have affected NXT storylines leading into <em><strong>NXT Takeover: Philadelphia<\/strong><\/em>, scheduled to take place Saturday, January 27, 2018, the night before <em><strong>Royal Rumble<\/strong><\/em>. <a href=\"http:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/2017\/11\/30\/spoilers-nxt-tapings\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">As we reported the other day<\/a>, at Wednesday&#8217;s NXT tapings, an 8-man tournament to name the new #1 contender for Almas&#8217; NXT Championship was filmed, featuring <strong>Trent Seven<\/strong> vs. <strong>Killian Dain<\/strong>, <strong>Kassius Ohno<\/strong> vs. Johnny Gargano, <strong>Roderick Strong<\/strong> vs. <strong>Lars Sullivan<\/strong> and <strong>Aleister Black<\/strong> vs. <strong>Adam Cole<\/strong>. At the tapings, the eventual winner and new #1 contender was crowned as Johnny Gargano won the tournament.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10225\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10225\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/NXT_04012017MM_0924-c609f52546985580814f33440932e601-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But things changed yesterday following <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/wi\/news\/2017\/1201\/634577\/wwe-nxt-announces-change-in-qualifying-matches-for-takeover\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the NXT Live Event in Lakeland, Florida<\/a>, as the cameras were there to tape more segments and matches for upcoming NXT episodes, including the UK&#8217;s Trent Seven winning a Battle Royale to qualify for the tournament in the first place. But in a video segment featuring NXT General Manager <strong>William Regal<\/strong>, the NXT GM announced the eight men in the tournament, yet this time, Johnny Gargano was not mentioned, and Kassius Ohno&#8217;s first round opponent was named to be <strong>The Velveteen Dream<\/strong> instead. A WWE graphic announcing the news has also removed Gargano and replaced him with Dream instead, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wwe.com\/shows\/wwenxt\/article\/andrade-cien-almas-nxt-title-challenger-takeover-philadelphia-announcement?sf174968074=1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as well as on their official website<\/a> (which features Regal&#8217;s announcement).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10227\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10227\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10227\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/vnD8QYhP.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/vnD8QYhP.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/vnD8QYhP-300x157.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10227\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While they could still tape another segment at a future NXT Live Event to explain how Gargano gets worked back into the tournament, it could also simply be that new medical reports clearing Ciampa earlier &#8211; his initial diagnosis had him out until <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prowrestlingsheet.com\/ciampa-injury-update\/#.WiGV3Wf6uHu\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as late as March of 2018<\/a> &#8211; may have caused NXT creative to alter the plans and instead go ahead with the Ciampa vs Gargano feud instead of their original plans.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10221\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10221\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10221\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2017\/12\/047_NXT_05202017ej_2775-5891f57bd2236f3ca0b116e8397156f4-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the two could be unrelated, two separate pieces of news today could actually be affecting each other. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer recently mentioned to a fan on Twitter that he was under the impression Ciampa was returning soon, following his surgery from a ruptured ACL this past May at NXT Takeover: Chicago. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":10224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[531,68,116,529],"class_list":["post-10220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-diy","tag-johnny-gargano","tag-nxt","tag-tomasso-ciampa"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}