25 Most Important Wrestlers In NXT History
5. Johnny Gargano
The current NXT Champion was Ciampa's tag team partner in #DIY and the victim of his brutal heel turn in 2017. Johnny would go on a redemption storyline following this attack, almost becoming NXT Champion at TakeOver: Philadelphia in his five star match with Andrade "Cien" Almas.
This coincided with the return of Tommaso Ciampa, which set up yet another five star match at TakeOver: New Orleans, when Gargano defeated his former partner in an Unsanctioned Match.
Johnny Wrestling would put on two more incredible TakeOver matches with Ciampa, including a brutal Last Man Standing match for Ciampa's NXT title at TakeOver: Brooklyn III. His loss there sent Johnny into a downward spiral, transforming him from underdog babyface into twisted tweener.
Johnny then captured the North American Championship and seemingly realigned with Ciampa as an evil incarnation of #DIY. When an injury forced Ciampa to vacate the NXT title in early 2019, Gargano redeemed himself once again by rising to the challenge of Adam Cole at TakeOver: New York, finally capturing the NXT Championship that had eluded him for so long.
The Gargano and Ciampa storyline is undoubtedly the best of WWE's modern history, but Johnny creeps ahead of Tommaso in this list because of everything that he did outside of Ciampa.
He may be known as Johnny Wrestling, but he really should be known as Johnny NXT.