During a recent interview with Pwinsider, Tommaso Ciampa commented on possibly leaving WWE NXT for the main roster, working with Timothy Thatcher, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his chemistry with Timothy Thatcher and how it compares to teaming with Johnny Gargano: “Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely unique, but… And it’s got some comparison, for sure. Like, “sometimes your greatest opponents make the greatest tag partners” type of thing. That was the case with Johnny and I, it’s the case again with Timmy and I. Just, we have really good chemistry, whether we’re against each other or we’re together. And that’s, for me at least, that’s the key. It’s like half the battle is just having good chemistry, being like-minded, seeing things the same way. Timmy’s pretty straightforward, he’s pretty simple to read. It’s pretty easy for me to know what he’s thinking, most of the time, when we’re in a match. So that helps.
“And, man, he’s just a tough, rugged dude. So I understand the Ole comparison with him and stuff. He’s smashmouth, he’s straightforward. It’s really been very refreshing doing the tag stuff together. It’s one of those things that just fell in both of our laps, with the opening for the Dusty Cup Tournament, and then I think it was just evolving from there. But it’s been a fun ride, and it’s really cool now to see it evolving into… From the Legado match to the GYV match, now to this with MSK, and we’re going for tag titles, and… I mean, it’s Timmy’s first time having a title match, or at least to my knowledge, in NXT. So it’s cool for me to see and be a part of this journey for him. And then for myself as well, man, it’s been a tough 18 months as far as professionally goes. So it’s nice to have some sort of momentum growing in the right direction again.”
On whether he looks at the WWE main roster as his ultimate goal: “Yeah. It’s a tough one for me to answer, because I don’t know that… That’s not how I work, as far as goals go. When I was a kid, it was different. When I was a kid, I wanted like, “Oh, I want to be on WrestleMania and stuff.” For sure, those were the goals. Because I was signed at 20, 21, and released, and then did a bunch of independents, and toured around the world, and just found myself and grew as a performer. It’s just all these different experiences I had, and it just became more about the journey than anything, and it became more about just becoming better, a better performer. So when Johnny and I came to NXT and our first thing was doing the Dusty Classic in 2016 or something, even then, I mean, it was just, for me, it was like, “Oh, cool, here’s an opportunity to get in the ring with new different people, fresh people, get in front of different audiences and grow as a performer.”
“And obviously it keeps snowballing, but… The Raw brand is fantastic. Great roster, lots of talented men and women. Same thing with SmackDown, same thing with NXT. I’d love to get in there with everybody. It’s just more about me doing things that, I don’t know, help my own legacy at the end of it, that helped me, as a performer, grow and get better and stuff. There’s no door that’s closed, but at the same time, there’s no weird carrot that’s dangling in front of me, where I’m like, “Oh, that’s what I got to do.” It’s just going with the flow of it all and making the most of every opportunity that’s presented to me, essentially.”
