Tommaso Ciampa has been one of the pillars of NXT since 2016 when he and Johnny Gargano took the spotlight as DIY.
Ciampa has been the face of the promotion and various points and is a former NXT Champion. Despite his longstanding on the brand, there are times when he's not in the high profile position fans are used to seeing him in.
Speaking to Denise Salcedo of Sportster, Ciampa discussed the creative cycles that happen and how he stays sharp.
"For me as a performer, you're kinda just a cog in the wheel. It's just a matter of being adaptable and taking any opportunity that you can get and just running with it and making the most of it. It's so different how this works in stages as you grow as a performer and mature too as an individual. Because it's this big wheel and it just keeps spinning and you're not always gonna be on top of that wheel and you just have to be able to make the most of it wherever you end up being. You look at a roster like ours or even take RAW and Smackdown, anybody for example, there's so much talent right now in wrestling more so than I think probably ever. When you just take all of it together it's an insane amount of talent and there's only you know a certain amount of hours a week of television. Whether that's NXT, or RAW or Smackdown or whatever and you just have to understand that. You can get 10 minutes, 20 minutes or last Takeover, I think I got 60 seconds in a promo, you just make the most of it and you just try to make sure that you're always proud of what you've presented," he said. "I'll use a person like Randy Orton for example. Randy Orton has moments where he's the guy everyone is talking about. He's the greatest villain in the world and then he has other moments where he's gonna be tagging with RKBro and it's still great because it's Randy Orton. But he's not the greatest villain in the world until he is again. It’s a wheel."
Orton and Ciampa had multiple Twitter exchanges last summer, with Orton saying he wanted Ciampa to have a long and healthy career working on the main roster.
Ciampa has been part of 15 NXT TakeOver events in his career, but did not have a match at TakeOver: In Your House in June.
When asked how he feels about being left off TakeOver, Ciampa replied, "To be honest I don't know that you always do and you have to understand that that's part of the process. To keep everybody creatively fulfilled 52 weeks a year is impossible. That's not real. So it's kinda just understanding the timing of it all. You could still put out quality during what you're allotted but you control what you control. It's not easy by any means, I am not saying I don't have days where I am frustrated or I don't have a chip on my shoulder when I am left off of Takeover or something, I do, but I have to step outside of my own bubble sometimes too and understand this is a much bigger business than just me."
Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher are set to challenge MSK for the NXT Tag Team Titles at NXT Great American Bash.
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