Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa share their thoughts on earning a spot at WrestleMania 40.
On the March 18 episode of WWE Raw, DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano) defeated the Creed Brothers (Julius and Brutus Creed) to qualify for the Six-Pack Tag Team Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 40. This will mark the first time competing at WrestleMania for the former NXT Champions.
In a Raw Exclusive, Gargano and Ciampa were asked to describe what the win meant to them.
"What does it mean, Cathy? You’ve been with us forever, right, so you could almost say it’s full circle. But from main-eventing NXT TakeOvers, we’ve been with WWE since 2015. We’ve main-evented TakeOvers, we’ve been on many, many big shows. But WrestleMania was always that dream. That dream you had as a little kid. When you’re growing up, you dream of wrestling at WrestleMania. Finally, after all this time, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, together, DIY, is going to WrestleMania. It’s in Philadelphia. The story writes itself. I know the word ‘story’ is a buzzword right now, but our story in Philadelphia…for years, we were killing ourselves on the indies in Philadelphia, in those types of cities. The most respectful, hardcore wrestling fans in the world. That's who we performed for, and that’s who’s gonna be there to witness our dream come true," Gargano said.
Ciampa then made it clear that the show being in Philadelphia was special to him, as he was a fan of Rocky Balboa when he was growing up. He praised the Creed Brothers but that stated that they were not going to miss their chance, as WrestleMania was their moment.
"I’ll tell you this. I grew up, and I was a Rocky Balboa fan, and I was a WWE fan. I love this industry, and the fact that we’re going to Philadelphia, I said it to my wife the other day, it is not every day that you have an opportunity to punch your ticket to WrestleMania. We’ve been waiting our entire lives for one opportunity, and it came tonight, and we were not gonna miss it, and I love the Creed Brothers. I respect the hell out of them. They’re gonna have so many WrestleManias in their future. But this, Philadelphia, WrestleMania 40, this is our moment," Ciampa said.
Gargano then noted that they had changed a lot since their last ladder match as a team, as they were both fathers now. Ciampa pointed out that the size of the ladder match will be unprecedented. However, he vowed to steal the show and win the gold.
"This is the biggest ladder match in WWE, as far as I know. 12 men in one ladder match has never been done before. This is gonna be insane. Everyone’s goal is to steal the show at WrestleMania. We’re gonna steal the show at WrestleMania. In the process, we’re gonna take the tag team titles that have eluded us our entire nine-year career in the WWE. It’s gonna be a great night," he said.
Ciampa also said he hopes he gets to meet Jason Kelce, the Kelces, and Taylor Swift. He started to express his hope that Sylvester Stallone would be there before Becky Lynch interrupted and said that was her thing, as she was "Becky Balboa". They then argued as the video came to an end.
Click here to catch up on our coverage of the March 18 episode of WWE Raw. For a full review, check out the post-show podcast on our YouTube channel.
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