NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia results - Andrade “Cien” Almas retains the NXT title against Johnny Gargano in an incredible match

Johnny Gargano has had his ups and downs in NXT. He climbed the mountain with #DIY but that came crashing down when his partner Tommaso Ciampa stabbed him in the back. His single’s run afterwards was underwhelming, failing to pick up any signature wins.

However, things seemed to turn around when he defeated Kassius Ohno in a qualifying for a #1 contender’s fatal 4-way. Gargano won that match as well and even defended his title opportunity against the upstart Velveteen Dream. It all brought him to TakeOver: Philadelphia tonight (Jan. 27) to try to defeat champion Andrade “Cien” Almas and climb the summit of NXT.

The match itself was a battle. Things were even at the get go, maybe even slightly in favor of Johnny Wresting. But then a bad spill turned it to Almas’ favor.

But you can’t keep a good man down forever. Johnny avoided a corner stomp and threw the champ into the turnbuckle.

Of course, Almas would fight back himself and this would become a straight up barnburner. The latter stages of this match was reversal after reversal and stunning move after stunning move with the crowd loving every minute of it. It’s one of those matches that “Just go watch it” is best way to describe it. Here’s a gif that gives you the idea.

After a long, wonderful fight, Almas looked to have hit his winning shot.

But it wasn’t enough!

Johnny fought back, including locking Andrade in the Gargano Escape for a long while. But that’s when Zelina Vega came to play. She pulled the champ’s hand under the rope and then outside, deliver a huricanrana to the challenger into the steps. Almas hit his DDT... but Gargano kicked out!

When Vega went to work over Johnny some more, Candice LeRae jumped the barrier and attacked Zelina, chasing her through the crowd!

With the match once again even, Gargano locked in another Escape to the champ. But the long legs of Almas found the ropes. The fight spilled to the apron and Andrade hit a brutal double knees spot to the challenger against the ring post.

That knocked the lights out. Almas put the match away with a DDT from top rope. Johnny Wrestling came up short once again.

This match was incredible and we’ll be talking about it a year from now when they’re doing the NXT 2018 awards.

You can find all the results from TakeOver: Philadelphia here.