What I enjoy most about Team DIY (Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano) is their public displays of affection. You can see in prior articles I wrote about them that they’re always hugging on each other and resting their heads together. It’s so gay and so beautiful.
The NXT Takeover event in Chicago on 5/20/17 was no exception. These buff little pocket studs had to battle the massive brutes known as the Authors of Pain in a vicious Ladder Match!
It’s Johnny Wrestling to the rescue!
Both teams show us some spectacular and dangerous Ladder Spots, with the big Authors of Pain generally dominating, and Team DIY looking hot in their tight little matching trunks. Check out the Authors dragging up Ciampa’s limp body by the chin so they can bash in his face. Nice!
Sacrificing his own face to save his beloved partner.
After pushing his partner out of harm’s way, poor Gargano then eats the ladder to the jaw that was originally meant for Ciampa!
What a sweet gesture of self sacrifice! And Johnny is the prettier member of DIY, so we’d expect rough-neck Ciampa to take this sort of brutal offense.
OUCH! That’s GOTTA smart (unless it’s a cardboard ladder or something.)
Here is a view of that stunning ladder shot from another angle.
Or you can pretend they drilled him in the face again when he finally got back up to his knees.
Of course this level of brutality is more than my cute DIY Team is able to handle. Johnny and Tomasso are left broken and dizzy on the canvas as the brutes grab the title belts and strike victory poses up on the ladder.
It is actually what happened AFTER the match that most caught my attention and convinced me to want to write about this event…
For better or for worse, in sickness and in health…
Team DIY deliver tons of their trademark loving and hugging, with Ciampa embracing his suffering partner around the neck and hugging him closer to show him support.
I still love you man, even if we always lose. That’s beautiful.
I’m sorry if I went overboard with these images of Ciampa and Gargano in these loving embraces. It’s just so rare in our homo-phobic society that we get to see men showing blatant love and support for each other.
So I really dig it. In public. With no self-consciousness or Gay Panic.
Did he just whisper “I love you”?
The love fest continues outside the ring as the partners make their way to the locker room, pressing their foreheads together to show their mutual positive regard. Awwww.
Even if we lost the title belts, we still have each other.
WHAT ?!? Ciampa slams his partner’s face into the wall! WHY Ciampa! WHY?!
Then my world explodes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Ciampa grabs poor Johnny by the scruff of the neck and runs him face-first into the wall!
What is happening!? Why are you attacking your own partner, you crazy meanie!? Why can’t two hot guys just keep loving each other forever??
Crazy Ciampa proceeds to really kick his partner’s ass.
I always thought Ciampa was a bit crazy looking with that scruffy beard and the wild, hungry look in his eyes when he gazed at Johnny. You can’t TRUST creepy, aggressive men like him.
One of Ciampa’s trademark moves is his Running Knee to the victim’s temple, which he now unleashes on his former BFF.
Damn this is one hot break-up scene and Heel turn. The NXT writers have done fantastic work here — they should win an Emmy, or maybe an Adult Video Award.
And Ciampa as a Rabid Heel really gets my juices flowing. He is so damn rough. I hope he and Johnny Wrestling feud for at least the remainder of 2017, and Ciampa wins every time.
Ciampa lowered his kneepad to expose the bone before delivering this Killer Knee.
Ciampa is still not finished! He uses his Knee Power to drive Johnny up onto a platform thing at ringside where the drama can continue in public view.
DIY then perform this really touching and beautiful love scene where Johnny, dazed and helpless, rests his head on his attacker’s thigh and reaches up to caress his face.
Ciampa is clearly going to miss these intimate moments with his handsome partner. But he knows he’s going to have to hurt Johnny even more to end it.
Grabbing Johnny by the chin (I LOVE that), Ciampa stands over him and pulls him to his knees. Damn that’s so nice and homo-erotic, taking control of the kneeling man by gripping his face like he owns him. Johnny proceeds to grab and paw weakly at Gargano’s body — the body that he will never be able to touch again, at least not affectionately.
Ciampa then hoists Johnny up on his shoulders to slam him through a table placed next to that box thing they’re standing on. The crew brings in a stretcher to drag Johnny off to the hospital while his (former) partner watches coldly.
Why did this happen? Could it have been partly our fault? After all, we constantly chant “John-ny Wrest-ling!” whenever DIY are in the ring, but we never chant for Ciampa. It’s just so fun to say “John-ny Wrest-ling” and he’s so darn cute. But maybe we created jealousy in the ranks by favoring one partner over the other. Maybe we are the cause of this split.
The more loving the Tag Team partners, the more intense their break-up will be. They announced that Johnny will be appearing on the next episode of NXT and I hope Heel Ciampa is there too, with his knee-pad pulled down. Stay tuned, wrestling fans…
It titillates me too to see affection of this sort from (mostly) straight men, and it tends to happen in the homosocial environment of sports (usually those that are team-based).
There’s a cultural aspect to it too. Italians can be pretty touchy-feely and during soccer matches I’ve seen German, British, and Eastern European players recoil or look uncomfortable when their Italian teammates plant a kiss on them while celebrating a goal. They’ll embrace but a smooch is just a bridge too far!
The betrayal was actually the highlight of the night. I feel torn about this. I was a bit sad to see them break up but was also turned on big time when Ciampa started attacking Gargano. Gargano sold it so well that his limp body and dazed look became a piece of artwork.
Wow – that clip of Gargano getting a ladder full in the face. Looks like it makes real contact, and – as you say – it just must have hurt. A reminder of the genuine risks pro wrestlers have to take, especially in stunt matches, and the amount of punishment they need to be prepared to absorb merely to do their jobs in providing fleeting entertainment. Heroes all of them – especially the ones out there with no more protection than a pair of brief trunks.
Thanks for posting it. As always, the site’s a wonderful source.
This article was amazing… the text and photos really made me feel like I was there (… and wished I had “the network”)
It seems like WWE is finally letting Tomasso Ciampa portray the brutal b*stard he has been in Indy rings…