Triple H took part in a media call for NXT TakeOver and addressed Tommaso Ciampa’s neck injury that required surgery, and a change in creative plans. Triple H called the situation “the unfortunate speeding up of an injury that needed to be taken care of.” He also said it required them to change course very close to TakeOver, but it spoke to the depth of the talent roster, as well as their passion and commitment.
“I hate the fact that Johnny and Tommaso aren’t able to pay off what has been a very long, emotional storyline for them, it is what it is, and we’ll head in a different direction that honestly feels epic in this moment. I know I use that word a lot here, but it just does. It feels like a moment where at the end of that taping Michael Hayes, Shawn Michaels and I looked at each other and said ‘wow, this feels almost as big.”
HHH was asked what was known about the Ciampa injury at the time of his debut on the main roster, and he said they were aware of an injury at the time, but it seemed manageable. He said once things got worse they made a collective decision to have the surgery sooner.
“It was—obviously, we knew about it. We knew that that was going to be… a necessity going forward, but the decision was made ‘let’s do this with the main roster, let’s give him that exposure. He’ll take some time off, and we’ll use that in whatever way we can. He’ll take the time off, get fixed up and be back and be better than ever, and move forward from there. Unfortunately, with the type of injury he had, it went from one thing to another very rapidly. We couldn’t wait; it sort of changed from something that was manageable to being something that we just—this is a risk that we are not willing to take for anything. We moved to him immediately doing the surgery at that point in time and starting on the road to recovery. A lot of thought put into all of the conversations, but clearly something we knew about and there was a plan for him on all aspect of it, including he’s going to need to take some time off down the road here, very soon to get this fixed.”
Triple H added:
“We knew the length of time probably that it was going to take for a return anyways, but as you’re looking at this there are certain things that are manageable and you can manage the situation, there’s no risk, no damage, no anything. You’re just managing the symptoms and the situation—you know it’s something you’re going to have to take care of eventually, then that situation changed. Instead of being manageable, it progressively got worse, as soon as we saw it progressively getting worse, you realize that this situation is not something that is manageable for us and him, and we made the decision with him to go in the direction that we did.”
He also said there was a full on creative shift from an NXT standpoint and how the injury changed creative plans, and that a lot of thought and effort has gone into that area.
Wrestlezone first reported Ciampa’s injury was more serious than originally thought, and that it looked like surgery was required. WWE later confirmed reports about the surgery, and Ciampa had the procedure done that week.
Related: Tommaso Ciampa’s Doctor Gives Recovery Estimate, Santino To Guest Coach At WWE PC
