Tommaso Ciampa was the latest guest on Edge & Christian’s podcast and he talked about dealing with his recent neck injury and the thoughts going through his head as to what his wrestling concerns are. Ciampa also talks about the origins of Team DIY and how he followed Johnny Gargano‘s lead. Quotes are below (transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone):
Tommaso Ciampa on the hardest part of being on the shelf:
“The tough thing for me for this one specifically was going into New York, NXT Champion, main eventing, it’s WrestleMania weekend and we’re blowing off this four-year program and it’s hard for me to sometimes to think like there is a next one that’s bigger. Like a piece of me was like ‘maybe this is the biggest one?’ So that’s been the hardest part of this whole process for me is wrapping my mind around like ‘Will there be a bigger one? And will you fully recover? Will you fully recover and perform at the level you performed at before?’ Cause I think I’ll fully recover, like there’s no doubt in my mind I’ll live a happy life with my daughter and my wife and all that. It’s just like can I do that and take on the road schedule and physicality of wrestling. So that’s been a really hard part for me to wrap my mind around. I don’t know, I guess we’ll just see.”
Ciampa on beginning in his NXT run with DIY:
“Then I was thrown in this like underdog babyface tag team and I didn’t do much tag team stuff on the indies. I definitely did not play that character and that was Johnny’s forte so I really kind of came in thinking like “I’m just gonna kind of ride his coattails, let him do the workload because he’s right up his alley and I’m not and I’m just gonna play my role, hoping one day, maybe, I would get to flip the switch and kind of do what I do.” So like going away and knowing I was coming back to that heel thing, it was the best thing ever.”
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