NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa recently spoke with TalkSport about a wide range of topics, including how wrestling legend Rick Steiner was supposed to attend Halloween Havoc, where Ciampa retained his title over Steiner’s son, Bron Breakker. Ciampa also opens up about the cinematic ending to his feud with Johnny Gargano, one that he calls disheartening. Highlights are below.
Says Rick Steiner was supposed to be at Halloween Havoc:
“So, [Rick Steiner] was meant to be at Halloween Havoc. He pulled out last minute. Maybe because I retained, but I won’t say that’s why [laughs]. I would love to be friends with him. I said to Bron ‘I don’t want to meet your dad, I want him to be my buddy.’ I want us to exchange numbers and whatever Rick Steiner does. He’s probably not a big phone guy, I don’t know [laughs]. But I just wanna be friends with him.”
How the ending to his feud with Johnny Gargano was disheartening:
“It was disheartening. I’ll be honest, a lot of our feud, I can’t think of something that’s had more obstacles than that, between Aleister [Black] getting injured and my injury. It would have been perfect if we’d gone to TaekOver New York like we were supposed to. So it hurts a little sometimes because I know it’s tarnished in some people’s minds, but I know how much we put into it and that’s what hurts. We know the passion that went into that work, so yeah, it’s a bummer that we didn’t get to finish it the way we imagined.”