10 best matches at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn

#4 Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas (NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III)

A foreshadowing.

Though this was eventually superseded by their TakeOver: Philadelphia classic, this first encounter between the pair put them both on the map as main event contenders in NXT. For Almas, it was the signal that his turnaround was complete. He exploded to the NXT Championship only three months later. For Gargano, it was the first in a string of high-profile, well-fought losses that, following the breakup of DIY three months earlier, cemented him NXT's most sympathetic character.

This was a fantastically technical match between two great wrestlers. Gargano showed his fire and Almas showed his dominant, "Tranquilo" ice to try and get inside the head of his opponent.

The action picked up when Gargano dived outside the ring and hit Almas with a slingshot DDT, only for a two count. When he went for a slingshot spear, Almas caught him and slammed him into the canvas, then hit a tornado from the top rope for a near-fall of his own.

Both men beat the crap out of each other with multiple big moves. Gargano put Almas in the Gargano Escape, with Brooklyn clamoring for him to tap, but he instead reversed it into a powerbomb to the turnbuckle. After a double knee strike into the corner, Almas still only got a two count on the fallen Gargano, to his own shock.

Gargano had one last rally in him, only for it to be cut short when Zelina Vega threw a DIY shirt into the ring. He looked at it in shock and disbelief, with pain flooding into him. Almas took advantage of the distraction, hit the Hammerlock DDT, and walked out the victor.

With Almas smiling in triumph and Gargano's attention fully riveted on the DIY shirt afterwards, it was a harbinger of great things to come.