Tommaso Ciampa was focused on keeping NXT hot.
From 2018 to 2019, NXT was one of the hottest television shows in the world, boasting a talent roster that included the likes of Adam Cole, Ricochet, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Malakai Black, Keith Lee, Pete Dunne, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, Athena, Shayna Baszler, and Kairi Sane.
The NXT brand is still creating new stars to this day, but many fans will argue that the brand will likely never be able to recreate the buzz that was present in the latter part of the 2010s.
While speaking to Fightful for a interview just days before WrestleMania 40, Tommaso Ciampa talked about the past doubt that he had faced about potentially never getting to compete at 'The Show Of Shows', noting that there was a point in his career where he was locked in on NXT.
"Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, there was a lot of doubt pre-signing with WWE ‘cause after I left Kentucky and all that, it was like, ‘Oh, maybe that was just a silly dream. Maybe that won’t happen.’ Honestly being part of the company and stuff, there was a time NXT was so hot that I didn’t really see anything outside of NXT. It was like, ‘We’re building this. This is our baby. We’re gonna take this as far as we can.’ The pandemic changed a lot of stuff and we’re still seeing so many after effects of that in the entire wrestling industry and obviously the world. I think that opened up a whole new platform for us and made us start to look at this as an option. To finally get here, dude, nine years later? My gosh."
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Tommaso Ciampa in the video linked above.
After that, head over to our YouTube channel to check out our other recent interviews.
