WWE News: Tomasso Ciampa says 'lack of commitment to kayfabe' is why few heels are successful today

What's the story?

One of the hardest thing to do in today's game of professional wrestling is getting the fans to truly hate the heels and root for the faces.

While speaking on the Edge and Christian Podcast of Awesomeness, former NXT Champion Tomasso Ciampa said that the reason why so many heels today aren't as successful as in the past is due to 'lack of commitment to kayfabe'. WrestleZone.com carried news of Ciampa's interview.

In case you didn't know...

Ciampa was doing masterful work as the heel NXT Champion before he had to relinquish the title in order to undergo neck surgery.

His dedication to the craft was what made him so believable as a heartless heel that would stab even his best friend in the back.

The heart of the matter

In today's game, almost as many heels are cheered just as loudly as the faces they are opposing.

One such example is Elias and another example in NXT is Adam Cole. Fans cheer loudly for each man because not only are they very talented, but they excel at what they do both inside the ring and on the microphone.

But therein lies the problem, according to Ciampa. Pro Wrestling needs to have some of its heels truly hated rather than have the backing of the WWE Universe.

“You guys would talk about this a lot, especially Christian, you’d say, ‘NXT is missing a heel.’ I felt that way the entire time I was away. I was going to do my darndest to fill that void because I play a different heel than most people play and I knew that if I committed to this that people would lose their minds. There’s always these different trends in wrestling, but nobody was committing to kayfabe.”

Part of the reality is that crowds today are a lot smarter than they were before and are also more informed of the goings on behind the scenes due to the internet and social media. Even simple things like not putting out a shirt can help sell the heel act.

“When the heel flip happened, everything just snowballed. Why put out merch? If they put out merch then they’re gonna buy it and dig it. Even with catchphrases, when I did promos I was always very aware that my cadence couldn’t be catchy. Once it got going, we have Shawn [Michaels] at the Performance Center and then Hunter was behind it big time, everyone was on-board and affirming that this was working then it was like, ‘What’s the next thing I can do?'”

Ciampa is currently out of action in order to deal with neck surgery that may keep him sidelined all year. He last appeared at TakeOver: New York to congratulate Johnny Gargano.

What's next?

Ciampa needs to get healthy first, and hopefully, he is able to return from another neck injury. He was doing great work in NXT and was looking like he was making an impact on the main roster as well.

It's hard to get people to hate you when you are so good at your craft, but the fans will cheer for what they want to nowadays, and not what they are told to cheer for.