Tommaso Ciampa knows a thing or two about the WWE NXT brand.
The former NXT World Champion recently joined WWE commentator Corey Graves on the latest installment of his “After The Bell” podcast.
During the in-depth interview, the WWE Raw Superstar and DIY member gave his thoughts on the current state of WWE NXT.
“So I actually stopped by the Performance Center and the vibe there and the energy, I don’t want to say it’s — It is. It’s exactly what it used to be,” Ciampa said. “It had a tough spin. It had a tough time with NXT 2.0, the adjustments, the color scheme changes. Everything. The vibe was different for a while. It’s hungry again and it’s competitive again and it’s a team effort again. It was a really cool thing to see and I kept saying that to everybody down there. All the producers and head coaches, Shawn [Michaels], Matt [Bloom], everybody. That crowd was as electric as anything I’d ever seen for a TakeOver. It was the first time watching that I thought ‘Man, this is the Black and Gold feel.’ They were crazy.”
Ciampa continued, “All these new talents and acts have now stepped past that point of being new and they’re developed and they have characters and they’ve got backstory. You can connect [with them.] It was cool to see. It’s cool to see Carmelo Hayes be a full package. It’s cool to see Trick Williams break out like crazy over the last few months. Ilja Dragunov is [on the] next level. He is full package and ready to go. You can toss that guy on a pay-per-view tomorrow and he is going to deliver.”
Check out the complete interview at Apple.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.