While Aleister Black and NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa brawl around Full Sail, Johnny Gargano puts a target on NXT North American Champion Ricochet. Video courtesy of the award-winning WWE Network.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Call it a product of NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa’s doing, but the remnants from his sly suggestion last month, concerning Johnny Gargano challenging for the NXT North American Title, became a fiery phoenix when Gargano provoked a snippy exchange with reigning titleholder Ricochet.

With NXT TakeOver: Phoenix just over two weeks away, Gargano stepped into Full Sail Live and motioned his crosshair on The One and Only, who last week put out a smoke signal that drew the ire of Johnny Wrestling. After promising to make a championship reign be the linchpin to his 2019, Gargano called out Ricochet, who stepped out to the ring to double down on the very claim that ruffled the feathers of his adversary.

Before the tension could boil over, NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa emerged to turn up the heat, encouraging Gargano that in 2019 “you can Do, It, Yourself.” But 2018’s self-proclaimed “Sports-Entertainer of the Year” soon learned the downside of meddling in other people’s affairs, after Aleister Black popped out to remind Ciampa of his own fate at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix, where they are set to face off for the NXT Championship. A promise by The Dutch Destroyer to make Ciampa “fade to black” during their bout on Jan. 26 would eventually get supplemented with a beatdown on the stage.

As Ricochet watched the melee unfold, Gargano clocked him with a hard Superkick to dish out the first salvo in this already bitter rivalry.