Tommaso Ciampa is confident that he'll recover properly but questions if he can get back into his groove.
Former NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa is currently rehabbing after undergoing neck surgery in March. Ciampa was originally scheduled to defend the NXT Championship against Johnny Gargano in a 2-Out-Of-3 Falls match at NXT TakeOver: New York and Ciampa had intentions of making it to TakeOver and taking care of his medical issues after the match was over. The injury got to the point that Ciampa could not compete and Undisputed Era's Adam Cole ended up replacing him. Johnny Gargano went on to defeat Adam Cole at TakeOver: New York and Ciampa joined in a hug between Johnny and Candice LeRae to close the show.
Ciampa has had several surgeries over the past two years and after this neck surgery, he questioned if he'll be able to take on the forthcoming road schedule that is awaiting him when he decides to return, on top of the physical toll that is put on one's body when they step into the ring. Ciampa expressed those thoughts when he joined E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness and opened up about his injury.
“Big shows happen. Like I’m pretty good buddies with Tegan Nox and she’s one of the ones I talk to a lot about it because just when she came back and got hurt again, the evolution is going on right now and the woman’s empowerment and everything is happening and she’s missing a lot of stuff, and I always say to her, ‘Anytime you miss a big show, the next big show is around the corner. You miss WrestleMania, there’s another WrestleMania coming’, and the tough thing for me -- this one specifically was, going into New York, NXT Champion, main-eventing, it’s WrestleMania weekend and we’re blowing off this four year program and it’s hard for me sometimes to think there is a next one that’s bigger." Ciampa explained. "A piece of me was like, ‘Maybe this is the biggest one’. So that has been the hardest part of this whole process for me is wrapping my mind around, ‘Will there be a bigger one?’ And ‘Will you fully recover and perform at the level you performed at before’ because I think I’ll fully recover. There’s no doubt in my mind I’ll live a happy life with my daughter and my wife and all that. It’s just, can I do that and take on the road schedule and the physicality of wrestling so that’s been a really hard part for me to wrap my mind around.”
WWE profiled Tommaso Ciampa on the WWEPC YouTube channel which showed a more vulnerable side of the former NXT Champion. To watch that video, click here.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
