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Like everything else over the last month, what was planned as the grand finale for Tommaso Ciampa's epic feud against Johnny Gargano certainly did not go as planned. Originally slated for Takeover: Tampa Bay, the match will now air on tomorrow's WWE NXT on the USA Network in a secret location. Earlier today, Ciampa sat down with PWInsider.com to discuss the match, how he felt after, his neck after last year's surgery, the longevity of the Gargano feud, his own future and legacy, the incredible Performance Center brawl and much more.
Mike Johnson: We are past what would have been WrestleMania weekend, but the main events are still coming fast and furious. On April 8th, WWE NXT will be presenting a match that was originally scheduled for NXT TakeOver: Tampa Bay, but will now take place on the USA Network series for WWE NXT. We had Paul Levesque on last week and he promised that the intention here is for this to be the final confrontation between Johnny Gargano and our guest at this time, Tommaso Ciampa. So, sir, strange times, obviously, and I would assume this is not how you envisioned the final clash with Johnny Gargano, but as we head into this match on NXT TV, how are you doing and what are your thoughts on being able to step across the ring from him for the final time?
Tommaso Ciampa: Yeah, well, I'm doing very well, fortunately. Staying safe. And yeah, man. I don't know if it's ever meant to be in professional wrestling, right? It's the beauty of this thing. The Improv is something that you just can't compare to any other sport, whether it's a live performance in front of a crowd and you're improvising or you're creatively improving storylines and making things work and that's what the story of Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano, has been for five years now. It's been obstacle after obstacle to overcome. And I guess the biggest obstacle has been this one. Last year, it was the neck surgery and it put off having that TakeOver WrestleMania weekend match. And then this year, we're geared up and invested and you just can't predict something like this ever happening.
So it's one of those things that we just kind of took it and rolled with it as best as you can, that's all you can do in these situations. You just make the best of it. I know that as everything was progressing, things would get quiet for a bit and it would just progress really fast, get quiet, progress quick. Then for this one, it was quiet for a bit and then it was, "All right, we're going to go forth with TakeOver." And then, "Okay, we're going forth with the match." And it's just how do we make it what everybody wants it to be? And the pay off, a five-year pay off, and there are no fans there and that atmosphere is gone. I honestly do think that when everything is said and done, it's only going to add to the saga that is DIY, and it's only going to add to our story. It's only going to add to how people remember this feud five years, 10 years down the line because, man, sometimes you have a match in front of a live crowd and you immediately know that instant gratification of, "That was magical. We hit a home run."
As weird as it sounds, at the end of it all, when I got home after taping this thing, it was a big sense of fulfillment, I think is the right word. Just in the... Here's a five year feud and we're giving people something and we gave them our souls and we gave them our hearts and we gave them our souls, and I'm proud of what the outcome of all this is at the end of it all. I'm proud of... I'm a big legacy guy. I'm a big story guy. And I think when people look back at it, just like I said it the other day, when people look back at this WrestleMania 10 years from now, I really think they're going to appreciate it even more because of what everybody went out and did. And I think they're going to feel that way about the match that they're going to see tomorrow night on USA.
Mike Johnson: So you mentioned longevity. When I think of great wrestling feuds, I think of Dusty Rhodes versus Ric Flair or Tommy Dreamer versus Raven, and long feuds that had all these intertwining moments. And you mentioned being pulled away and coming back. Obviously the neck injury and the surgery is never a good thing and there's been different injuries and different twists and turns that pulled Gargano and Ciampa away from each other and then back together. Do you think those pauses add to the legacy of the story and the feud as opposed to like, "Oh, there was three months", and the old WWWF formula. The heel gets a sneaky victory over Bruno for a couple of months and then Bruno makes the big comeback and beats him in the big showdown, and then after three months it's done. Do you think the pulling apart and the returning has added to the ambiance of this whole final battle the Gargano-Ciampa rivalry in general?
Tommaso Ciampa: Yeah. Well, I mean 100% out the gate. The fact that DIY was such a slow build for two years of us not having a contract, having a contract, doing a cruiserweight classic, getting together, having the mattress with Revival that we had and all that, and then the title reign, and all the way through Chicago. That ACL surgery, for what it's worth, was just a blessing in disguise. I got nine, 10 months away where I also got to fix my shoulder, and it's an instant gratification world, and everyone had to wait and they reacted so well to me turning in Chicago, and then they all had to wait and sit on it. And I think it's what really helped us out. The getting to New Orleans and having the match we had there, the atmosphere and the entrance without music and the whole thing. I don't think any of that happens if we don't get that 10 month pause. The one to me that... The neck surgery felt different to me. I mean, obviously for me I'm going through it, so it's very different. But I definitely...
If I had it my way, I would've got to New York, we would've had the match, and then I would've went and got my neck repaired. Even to this day I feel that way just because it would've been such a great endnote stamp and then I get to go fix myself and take my time and all that. But it just wasn't meant to happen. The doctors checked it out and said, "No, it's time to go." And who knows what would've happened? I mean, I'm sure there's no doubt in my mind that we made the right call. And I don't know what I expected returning from neck surgery, especially when it comes to the storyline with Johnny. At first, it was just going after Goldie and I said it the Summer before, but when we stepped in the ring, Johnny and I for the first time after the neck surgery, you instantly felt it in the crowd again like, "Oh, they want this payoff. They want to see where this thing goes and how it ends." And so it's just sometimes you just have to listen to that, it's a feeling you get it.
I don't know if we would've got back to it right away if we didn't feel that, but how it all played out with the brawl at the Performance Center. I mean, man, that's something I'm proud of and the reaction that people gave to that in the moment and afterwards was fantastic. And we were just on fire going into TakeOver Tampa, and it felt like it was supposed to go. We're on all cylinders, just like TakeOver New Orleans was, and then things happen. But what we did at the end of the day, going forward with TakeOver and having it without a crowd, in some weird way, I just... I don't know man. I just think that it's going to be remembered in its own way and a very special way. I really do. I just... I don't know. It's one of those things where, "Is it ideal? And did everything help at all times?" Probably not. But I think when you look back at it all, it's all just going to add to this program being remembered for such a long time because it's got so many cool nuances in it. It's just so well told. It's so organic. It's just so real that, man, I don't know. As a fan, it's hard not to get pulled in at any stage, whether it's the first chapter with DIY, the second chapter with me as the heel going into New Orleans, me winning the title, Johnny having his moment, this. There's just so many ebbs and flows. I don't think I would change any of it and I'm sure five, 10 years from now, I definitely am going to be able to look back knowing that we produced this for the last five years, it's one of those things I'm pretty proud of for a long time.
Mike Johnson: So, over the weekend WWE released the Edge documentary, and there's a scene in there during the time period where you're recovering from the neck surgery and he's kind of met you, and there's a great moment in there where you're like, you say to your wife, you go, "I think I'm friends with Edge."
Tommaso Ciampa: Oh, yeah.
Mike Johnson: ... Anyone who grows up having someone that inspires them and then they become close to them on a personal, intimate level, that's always a wonderful feeling. Talk a little bit about the neck. You just mentioned it. How is it? What was it like having someone like Edge mentoring you and kind of giving you the heads up of, "All right, this is what you can expect emotionally, personally, physically", and most importantly like how is the neck holding up to all the physical trauma of performing?
Tommaso Ciampa: Yeah, man. So, I'll take it in a few parts.
For Edge, man, I watched the documentary and I just had to say to him after, I was like, "Man, you just come off so likable." And the funny thing is that none of it's fake, and he's one of the most likable people I've ever met inside or outside of wrestling. And he did, he took to me... We actually, we developed a friendship. He came down to the Performance Center one to visit and kind of dropped knowledge on some people and offered out his number. "Hey, if you want to reach out to me, feel free." I don't know how many people took him up on it, but I started to take him up on it specifically going into TakeOvers and stuff of like, "Hey, I'm going to run some ideas by you." And that's how it developed and the next thing, obviously very common between the two of us there. And it's such a great support system as far as just helping me keep the noise down, the internal noise. And even to this day, we chat quite often. And so, he's been fantastic for all that.
As far as just coming back from the surgery and doing all of it. I mean, the rehab part, I definitely don't want to use the word easy in a lighthearted way, but for lack of a better term, I mean the first six to eight weeks, you're just not allowed to do anything. All you do is go for walks. And there's pain, there's discomfort, it's not fun. But as far as the physical part of it, I mean there's just nothing to it. Like with the knee it's like you're trying to get every five degrees and it's so excruciating, it's fricking a nightmare. With the neck, it's really just, "Hey, just don't mess with this thing. We put titanium. You just wait." And by the time I got to 12 weeks out, I'm lifting five, 10 pound weights. And for me I'm just really intuitive with my body and everything just felt great at 12 weeks and then it becomes, "Oh, 16 weeks. I have these limitations. And 20 weeks these” and I definitely remember hitting a point, whether it's four or five months out where I was talking with Hunter and I think I sent him a text and just said, "Hey, I'm definitely going to be coming back and probably a lot earlier than people expect. Like, I feel fantastic." And knock on wood, but my surgeon was unreal, Dr. Cordover out in Birmingham, and he's been instrumental in the rehab process. And something he said that stuck with me was like, "We put titanium and screws in you. Technically your neck is stronger now than it was your whole life because the titanium is stronger than the discs and the bones. So, technically you're in a better position now then you were before.
How about I'm training the way I am and I'm going all out having these matches, I mean, I feel that way. Like, it's hard for me to even think back to like how much pain I was in before [the surgery] and to feel the way I do now and think like, "Oh my God. If that was my norm and I just didn't realize that wasn't normal." Years of losing feeling and all this stuff that I just thought, "Oh, this is just normal." I couldn't lay on my back, I couldn't sleep much. So now it's just, all that stuff's gone. All the symptoms are gone. Going out and having that match, the WarGames match and then the match with Adam Cole, and waking up after Portland feeling the way I did. That's when, I don't know, it was probably good and bad. Good, in the sense that I felt great, but bad in the sense I started to go like, "Oh, I guess I'm fine."
I still have the medical team here, luckily, pulling me back sometimes with, "We're still going to control your reps", or. "We're going to... You don't have to be on every single thing at all times. You don't have to go 20-30 minutes every night." And it's good that I have that because like any athlete could probably say in any sport, I need somebody to put the brakes on. I can't do it myself. I'm just not programmed that way. So I'm happy I have the team I do here at WWE NXT and everything, who can put the brakes on for me because fortunately I feel great and it's been a blessing.
Interview continues on Page 2!
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