NXT incurred a mass exodus of the tag team division in 2016 – Enzo & Cass, The Vaudevillains, The Hype Bros, and American Alpha all received the call up to the main roster. The Revival was left to carry the flag for NXT, and surprising no one, they carried it well.
Still, there hasn’t exactly been an abundance of new talent filling those voids. TM61 is certainly benefitting from the opportunity, as are The Authors of Pain. The latter of the two still have a way to go before they’re considered among NXT’s elite. Enter the duo of DIY: Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.
The two first came across our screens in 2015 as two highly-touted independent superstars joining the ranks of the WWE’s hottest brand. For the most part, they were used sparingly for five-star matches here and there, but were never given a featured program.
Granted, that’s mostly because they didn’t sign full-time deals with WWE until the Spring of 2016. Still, when that moment came where opportunity and presence intersected, these two teams made magic together.
This is a more traditional rivalry – one that is more of the classic face vs. heel dynamic. That’s going to be the case with most Revival programs, though, as Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder have all the makings of the established heel archetype. They’re nasty, deceitful, and arrogant, but the most annoying thing about The Revival is that they can actually back it up in the ring when they need to.
As far as wrestling psychology goes, The Revival is instructing a clinic on tag team wrestling. If not for the New Day, these two are the unquestioned tag team of the year. They’re certainly poised for a breakout 2017.
On the other end of this rivalry, you have two popular indy darlings who adopted the DIY mantra, citing “no one is going to do it for you.” You can argue about the merits of ‘doing it yourself’ in tag team wrestling, but for the most part, it works. These are two guys known for being hard workers, and who rolled their sleeves up for 10 years before making it to the WWE. That’s always going to resonate with the WWE crowds, but especially the indy-friendly confines of NXT.
The dastardly Revival attacked DIY backstage, but Ciampa and Gargano always seemed to find their way back to the title picture. When the two were set to meet in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, The Revival backed out because of an injury. Everything about this screamed “arrogant heels vs. hard-working faces.”
But, I’ll quit yammering and let you guys enjoy some of the masterpieces these two teams crafted:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_4vtQEA9Ls]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRgV3MxgyI]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZZNB6AuF4o]
Regardless of you who you’re rooting for, this program has produced some of the finest tag team wrestling we’ve seen in recent years, and has had audiences standing, cheering, and chanting. But then, that’s to be expected when you have top guys doing top guy things.
Also, this:
This was the absolute coolest finish I’ve seen in a tag team match in years….maybe decades.
WWE’s Top 5 Rivalries of 2016 – #4
Stoney Keeley is the editor of the SoBros Network, Tennessee Titans Featured Analyst for Pro Football Spot, Contributor to FanSided’s Bama Hammer, and covers the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @PFSpot, @WrestlingNewsCo, @Bama_Hammer
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