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So it turns out, if you backtrack to TakeOver: New York and watch nothing but the @JohnnyGargano or @NXTCiampa bits of NXT since then? This new arc of the feud makes perfect sense. (Thread)
Tommaso consistently failed to recognize Johnny. It was downright pointed, in fact. ADAM was the one who'd stolen his life, ADAM was the one who'd had his title "fall into his hands", even though ADAM... legitimately won the 5-way to face Johnny, & later legitimately won Goldie.
He says he got Goldie by "betting on [him]self", when in fact - as only Johnny seems to remember - he got the title via Johnny's panicked interference. He's erased Johnny in his mind, as a champion or even a pawn.
Tommaso came out after Johnny won and everything was shiny and happy, and after that, he didn't so much as LOOK at Johnny until Johnny came out to stand next to him against UDE. Johnny had to FORCE him to acknowledge their past.
Johnny is, of course, understandably upset that everyone has seemingly forgotten everything Tommaso put him through. Attacking him, hospitalizing him, disrespecting his marriage, manipulating him, trying to break him in body and spirit. But he's upset about something else, too.
When Johnny attacked Aleister in the parking lot, his stated reason - and no alternative was ever given, even after his turn to the dark had been revealed as a scheme - was that Aleister had been trying to get involved in his and Tommaso's "story".
Johnny has been so determined that he and Tommaso have a story, an arc, that they have to play out. And he's very clear that he's the hero. So for Tommaso to position himself as the hero of a *different* story, well, that just won't stand.
I think part of this goes back to Johnny's attempts to rebuild himself while Tommaso was out after Chicago, and Tommaso's utter destruction of his goals once he came back. If he can't have a story without Tommaso, fine: Tommaso can't have a story without him.
So: it was Johnny who came out to back Tommaso up against UDE, before Finn put him on the shelf. It was Johnny who came out AGAIN to defend Tommaso against UDE, then suggested they team up against Moustache Mountain. "Just once, for old times' sake."
His suggestion to team came one week after Tommaso's promo that carefully removed Johnny from the context of the title. He came out for Tommaso's title match wearing their new team shirt before attacking Tommaso, losing him the title the way he'd once helped him win it.
Because did Tommaso really think teaming up "just once, for old times' sake" would work? When they'd been living in uneasy orbit without any evidence of an apology on either side? (Yes, I'm still convinced Johnny's actions at the Dusty Classic were a betrayal.)
Johnny, for better or worse, has made Tommaso part of himself. Even after revealing his own manipulation, he continues to do his half of their joint finishing move in matches, something I have never - though I admit I may have missed it - seen Tommaso do.
Even his feud with Finn came from a random external attack, a distraction from his efforts to associate himself with Tommaso again, and when he lost? He knew he *couldn't* be part of any other story, and Tommaso sure wasn't allowed to be either.
Amazingly, I'm not inherently team Johnny here. They're both flawed men. I've been saying for over a year now that Johnny never left the dark; he just became more subtle about it. Losing to Finn broke him a little more, but he's BEEN angry and resentful and violent.
(If I were better versed in the non-Venom symbiotes, I could dissect his Portland gear here. Bare minimum: Carnage was so effective because Kasady was already twisted. Thus, I have to assume Johnny had been on this path before his match with Finn.)
And yeah, he has reason to be angry. Of course he does. Anyone seriously asking "Why?" when he attacked Tommaso hasn't been watching. But alignment isn't about motive, it's about execution, & Johnny's lied & manipulated enough that he doesn't get to be "all heart".
He manipulated Tommaso into thinking they were on the same page, not once but twice, and attacked him in their team gear both times. He blatantly lied about the performance center fight, saying Tommaso dove through a door when Johnny in fact THREW him through said door.
If Tommaso really understood what he had done wrong, if he were even *sorry* about it instead of taking the crowd's forgiveness at face value, he would have tried to talk to Johnny instead of attacking him for telling the truth about the last three years. He's not innocent.
But by escalating the fight, attacking people who weren't Tommaso, and lying afterwards about actions that were caught on tape, Johnny doesn't come across in a great light either. He's re-weaving his story as he goes, but we still have the original text.
He's not wrong abt Tommaso! He's not wrong that people were willing to forgive every horrible thing he'd done, just because he got hurt! Kayfabe is a tricky thing, & balancing shoot concern w/worked hatred is beyond Full Sail's pay grade, but Johnny's always played off the fans.
If the fans want him to get violent, he will. If the fans want him to team with Tommaso, he will. If the fans want Tommaso to be forgiven, even for reasons that break the fourth wall, he'll assume Tommaso has been forgiven, and react accordingly.
Johnny has within him a need to be in control, a need to be at the center, and he'll do anything to satisfy that need. At his best, that leads him to heroic acts, and even to his stubborn determination to kick out at 2.9 no matter what's thrown at him.
But at his worst, when he's been traumatized and had that trauma completely ignored not only by his tormentor but by the fans and commentary he'd previously assumed were on his side, he goes... a little overboard.
Johnny has a story he wants to be part of. He wants to be at the center, and he wants it to make sense, and his life lately hasn't made sense at all. So if his story isn't going well? He'll sabotage other people's stories so that his can be told.
And now it's the final chapter, the final beat. The payoff they deserved a year ago. For both their sakes, I hope the story is enough for them.
