6 things we learned about Tommaso Ciampa on Edge and Christian's Pod of Awesomeness

#3 He did not want any merchandise as a heel

Ciampa bucked the trend.

Ciampa spoke about the relief he had, following the heel turn. The injury would also turn out to be a blessing in disguise for him. It gave him time to come up with ideas for a character that he has wanted to play for over a year in NXT.

The ball was in his court and you just knew that the eventual return of Tommaso Ciampa would be huge. It was huge, as he attacked Gargano with a crutch after his five-star match with Andrade 'Cien' Almas at Takeover: Philadelphia.

The run that would follow was immense. Ciampa completely bucked the trend and committed to kayfabe for pretty much the entirety of his run. He was the dark and evil soul all across WWE programming and social media, the fans actually hated him.

Ciampa also did not want any merchandise to avoid gaining any form of fan support for his character. He did not want anything catchy to be associated with him, just to remain the most hated man in NXT.

In the era of social media and lack of kayfabe, the former NXT Champion must be commended on his impeccable commitment to the Blackheart character, keeping his aura. Everybody believed that Tommaso Ciampa was a bad man, up until the point when WWE uploaded the documentary on his surgery. That is what makes a podcast like this so interesting because he never opened up even once during his entire heel run.

Ciampa's run with the NXT Championship was one of the greatest in the yellow brand's history.