Keith Lee Beats Johnny Gargano, Retains NA Title at NXT TakeOver: In Your House

Keith Lee defeated Johnny Gargano at NXT TakeOver: In Your House on Sunday to retain the North American Championship.

Lee hit Gargano with a Spirit Bomb. Wanting to leave no doubt about the outcome, he connected with another powerbomb and held onto Gargano to lift him into position for the Big Bang Catastrophe. That put Gargano down for the count.

The highly anticipated encounter between Lee and Gargano started to build several weeks ago when Gargano and his wife, Candice LeRae, talked trash about Lee and his girlfriend, Mia Yim, during a segment called "Dinner with the Garganos."

Their rivalry reached another level when LeRae and Gargano confronted Yim after she won a match against Santana Garrett. Gargano helped Candice take out Yim by pulling the rope down, which led to Lee running out and chasing Johnny Wrestling off.

Lee and Yim later spoofed "Dinner with the Garganos" with a comedic version of their own, and that infuriated Gargano and LeRae, which led to LeRae vs. Yim on Wednesday's NXT and Gargano vs. Lee at TakeOver.

Gargano was already a Triple Crown champion in NXT entering Sunday's match, but his reign with the North American Championship was the shortest in the history of the title. Meanwhile, Lee carried a 130-plus-day reign into TakeOver: In Your House.

Ever since turning on Tommaso Ciampa, Gargano has become a delusional and narcissistic heel, and his previous failure as North American champion fueled his desire to win the title back and become the first two-time North American champion.

He had a massive challenge on his hands for a number of reasons, however. For starters, Lee was on a lengthy winning streak entering TakeOver and has been one of the most dominant Superstars in NXT since late last year.

Also, Lee has a significant size advantage over Gargano. Since Lee is the babyface and Gargano is the heel, that made for a unique dynamic that isn't seen too often in wrestling.

While Gargano and Lee look like polar opposites standing across the ring from each other, there was a great deal of excitement surrounding their match among NXT fans since they are two of the best in-ring performers NXT has to offer and had never faced each other in a televised singles match before Sunday.

NXT TakeOver: In Your House looked like a stacked card on paper, but most fans likely considered Gargano vs. Lee the top candidate to steal the show, and they very well may have done precisely that.

Although Lee retained Sunday, there may be more matches to come between them since their rivalry is seemingly only beginning.

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