The top 10 WWE matches of 2018

#7 Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black (NXT TakeOver: War Games II)

"I absolve you of all your sins"

Talk about making the best of a bad situation. After Aleister Black's injury derailed what was sure to be an amazing triple threat match at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV, NXT spun it into a mystery angle about who laid out the former champion. It was none other than Johnny Gargano, the person you'd least expect to be involved in such a dark act.

So Aleister Black returned to the ring at War Games to show the wayward Gargano the error of his ways.

After an intense stare down, Johnny Gargano delivered an insolent slap to the face of his opponent, and the match was on.

What was so great about this match was its combination of pace and storytelling. Worked briskly throughout, the only time the action stopped was when a certain point of the narrative was conveyed. For example, Johnny Gargano displayed shades of Tommaso Ciampa throughout the match, from his facial expressions to his DIY mockery. The men taunted one another. One instance had Black making a mockery of Gargano by sitting down in the ring and inviting him to take his best shot.

When the action was going, though, it was at warp speed. Some amazing moves and counters were shown by both men, such as Gargano's slingshot DDT to the outside and Black's counter of a suicide dive attempt with a jumping knee strike.

There were no rest holds in this match. Sometimes, it resembled a kickboxing match instead of a wrestling one. The only thing that resembled a resthold was when Gargano had the Gargano Escape locked on. Black almost looked like he would tap to the second one, but he reversed it.

Eventually, Black hit not one, but two Black Masses on Gargano. Before the second one, he told Gargano that his sins were absolved.

The match was proof positive that Gargano's attempt to use the power of the dark side had failed. He was no more successful than he was when he was the ultimate good guy.

It will be interesting to see where this turn of events will take Gargano in 2019.