NXT superstar and former NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa recently joined Busted Open Radio to discuss his time with the brand, which the Psycho Killer says will still have Triple H’s vision despite the reports of major changes, including the colorful new logo. Ciampa also recalls the very moment he knew he had to join NXT. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he remembers the moment where he HAD to be in NXT:
I still remember the exact moment, I was watching on my phone, NXT ArRIVAL and I saw Cesaro in the ring with Sami Zayn and just went, ‘I gotta be there. I have –’ it’s the first time I ever felt that way and at that point, I think I’d been wrestling for 12 years. I was like, ‘I have to be there.’ It’s just — what it represented, it was taking the indie style and putting the lights behind it, the music and the production and going, ‘Hey, we’re going to deliver. Bell to bell, we’re going to deliver but we’re also going to have a commentary team that can support it and tell our story and we’re gonna have entrances and this awesome vibe and crowd and atmosphere’ and it just had everything that I personally loved about pro wrestling as a kid growing up and then I started to watch it continue to grow.
Says Triple H’s vision is still going to be there despite reports of NXT changing:
What’s to come for me? I’m still there. I’m still on NXT and Hunter and Shawn [Michaels] and all these great minds, their vision [is] still there. I see them every week, every time I go to TV they’re there. So it’s hard for me to read too much into an internet report when my day-to-day life, my week to week life hasn’t really changed a lot, you know? I’m still going to work and saying, ‘Hey, I think my promo can get the best reaction and tell the best story this way. I think the match could go this way or that way’ and we’re still being heard and we’re still seeing our visions being delivered and put through on camera to a wider crowd at home through USA [Network] and stuff so it’s hard for me to buy in too much to — I just don’t think I’m going anywhere. So, and as long as Tommaso Ciampa gets ten, 15 minutes on NXT, you’re gonna see me doing what I do best and what NXT does best. I’m gonna represent the company the way I’ve been representing it the last six years.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)