10 WWE NXT Wrestlers Who Didn't Succeed Until Turning Heel
7. Tommaso Ciampa
Tommaso Ciampa is another example of a talent who was far from a failure as a babyface but was able to fulfill his potential as a heel.
NXT fans had zero reason to care about Ciampa and his tag team partner Johnny Gargano for the first year they were in the company. They eventually caught fire as DIY during their rivalry, though their reign as NXT Tag Team champions was short-lived.
It was unknown what the future held for them once they dropped the straps. As cool as it would have been to see them as a team on the main roster, it was smarter for them to break apart and embark on their own paths toward super stardom, specifically with Ciampa as a villain.
Ciampa quickly cemented his status as NXT's top heel because of how he ensured there wasn't anything redeeming about him. For a while, he had no theme song and only entered to a chorus of boos from fans, thanks to his heartbreaking betrayal of Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: Chicago. He was that hated.
Within months of returning to the ring from injury in 2018, he captured the NXT Championship and knocked off the likes of Gargano, Aleister Black and Velveteen Dream. It'll be impossible to boo him once he's cleared to compete again, but that wouldn't have happened had he not first gone rogue two years ago.