When Tommaso Ciampa was first brought to WWE’s main roster, many fans were dismayed at his utilization. He was brought up as a tag team with Johnny Gargano (despite the fact that they were feuding in NXT), and neither man seemed to have the full support of the creative team. Ciampa would return to NXT for a spell, and now finds himself back on RAW’s roster.
Ciampa opened up to WrestleRant’s Graham Matthews over SummerSlam weekend to talk about his move to the main roster, his time with The Miz, and much more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
Making the move to the main roster: “Yeah, I’m loving it so far. There’s a lot of freedom that comes with being on the main roster as far as the travel goes. There’s a lot of new opponents. Live events have been a blast. I just stepped in there with AJ [Styles] for the first time a couple weeks ago. That was awesome. And there’s just so much opportunity right now, so I’m just so excited of what’s to come.”
On making the most of his time on TV: “It just comes with reps and experience. I think maturity-wise, and where I’m at in my personal life and my career, this is the right time to do it, and it was the right time for me. This is my M.O., ‘slow burn’ is my M.O. It’s not like I walked into NXT day one and became champion. We were two guys, Johnny [Gargano] and I, who weren’t signed who were just trying to prove ourselves. I had the matches back then with Tyler Breeze and Bull Dempsey and Vaudevillains and stuff. So, it’s the same thing. You just chip away, chip away, chip away, and that turned out really well for me. So, I’m just going to apply the same formula to the main roster.”
Discussing his famous DIY vs. The Revival match from TakeOver Brooklyn II: “Yeah, it’s weird how quick it goes by, in a blip like. I just actually celebrated four years ago winning that NXT title, and it’s the same as — so, I had my daughter four years, or you know, three years and ten months ago. She’s almost four, but it’s like we say it all the time: it feels like an eternity ago, and it feels like it was just like a blink of an eye. So you just try to enjoy each moment and just for me with wrestling, it’s like the process is what I’ve always loved. I love that everybody has their individual stories. I love that I’ve been, over eighteen years, creating my own story, and I like that this is a big part of it. The timing of the main roster was perfect, doing SummerSlam on the main roster is far different than doing it with NXT and Takeovers. It’s been a blast this week, like I’ve got to participate in a lot of cool community outreach stuff, and it’s just been awesome. I brought my wife and Willow with us. It’s just been great.”
His time with The Miz, and how good Miz is: “I’m a big fan too, like you know, it’s kind of easy for me to talk about: ‘hey two-time Grand Slam Champion, you got a main event in WrestleMania.’ When you’re a wrestler, when you’re in the trenches, and when you have to face adversity, you appreciate Miz. That’s a dude who faced adversity and has overcome, so yeah, it’s been organic. It’s been simple, and you know, the best is yet to come because I think, especially tomorrow when we debut some new gear and stuff, there’s a lot of stuff that we could do and I feel like people will be captivated by.”
Ciampa would corner Miz for his match against Logan Paul at the Biggest Party of the Summer, though the Miz would come up short in that match.
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