WWE: 10 Performers With The Best Heel-Work of 2018

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1. Tommaso Ciampa

And it’s not just any moment. It’s his moment.

The moment he turned heel last year against his former D.I.Y. partner following their Ladder Match at NXT Takeover: Chicago, Tommaso Ciampa declared that it wasn’t their moment they were living in. It was his. Never would we ever would have guessed that Ciampa would follow up and take over 2018 as his moment.

The heat that the NXT Champion has compiled this year has been unreal, particularly during his feud with Johnny Gargano, especially after he made Johnny Wrestling lose his Title vs Career match.

There was once a point where whenever Ciampa entered a ring, he could not get a single word out on the mic without getting engulfed in a sea of boos. The crowd’s overwhelming and consistent negative reaction to Ciampa is a big reason why The Sicilian Sociopath spent much of the year without theme music.

Even beyond just the reactions he’s been getting, the impact that Ciampa has had as a heel in NXT helped change the landscape of the big yellow brand for not only this year, but heading into 2019. It was his staight-up evil antics as NXT’s resident big boss, which include pulling off Gargano’s wedding band, spitting on it, and chucking it into the crowd, that convinced the once beloved face of NXT to turn heel himself. Now that’s some real impact that not a lot of entries on this list can attest to.

It would be hard to argue why Ciampa doesn’t deserve the #1 spot among the Best Heels of 2018.