10 Best WWE Face Turns Of The 2010s
6. Tommaso Ciampa - NXT TakeOver: New York
Sometimes life is cruel and the best-laid plans go astray. That's exactly what happened at NXT TakeOver: New York.
The plan for this show was seemingly to have Johnny Gargano take on storied rival, Tommaso Ciampa, for the NXT Championship in the main event of the biggest night of the NXT calendar. Unfortunately, Ciampa's neck had other ideas.
An injury forced the champion to relinquish his beloved Goldie, leaving the championship plans for TakeOver in tatters.
However, sometimes it's pressure that makes a diamond, and the NXT booking team pulled out a corker of a replacement with Gargano instead taking on Adam Cole for the vacant belt. After a hard fought two-out-of-three falls match, Gargano bested Cole to win his first NXT Championship.
In true Ciampa fashion, the Blackheart came out after the match. However, instead of attacking Johnny when the copyright logo flashed up, he instead congratulated him, hugging his former partner and sharing in his joy.
It was a subtle moment that was definitely not the first choice for this storyline, but it was still an amazing moment to see Ciampa and Gargano reunited after spending so long warring with one another and Ciampa's injury made him a lot easier to sympathise with.
Still gutted we didn't get this match, though.