Tommaso Ciampa Recalls Johnny Gargano Winning WWE NXT Title At NXT TakeOver: New York

Tommaso Ciampa recently appeared on RN Pro Wrestling, and the current WWE NXT Champion discussed a variety of topics, including his moment with Johnny Gargano after the latter became NXT Champion at NXT TakeOver: New York, not fitting the vision of what everyone expected for NXT 2.0, and much more. Here’s what Ciampa had to say (via Wrestling Inc.):

Tommaso Ciampa on his moment with Johnny Gargano after the latter became NXT Champion at NXT TakeOver New York: “It was so on the fly, I didn’t think I was going to make it to that New York show. That was days after my surgery so just being there, honestly I was exhausted to be honest by the time they went out. I remember watching in Gorilla with Candace, that crowd was not in favour of Johnny at the start and I just remember having this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach like dammit, this is supposed to be the moment. To just watch two artists, those are two of the best pro wrestlers alive. By the end of fall two going into that third fall, it was out of this world man, hard to duplicate that. It was just cool to experience that with Candace and it was a very on-the-fly call. I guess it was Hunter I think who said ‘Hey, if you want to go, go.’ It wasn’t a plan, it wasn’t rehearsed. If you watch it, Johnny didn’t know. So yeah it was a cool moment.”

On not fitting the vision of what everyone expected for NXT 2.0: “Everybody had a vision of what this 2.0 was and I don’t think I fit that vision. I did not fit that mold. I’m a little older, I look the way I look, whatever you want to say and to be able to go out there on night one and win the NXT title and have my redemption story. And then to continue on with it, of course we’re humans, we read stuff, we see stuff, transitional champion and all that crap. And then to go out there and beat Bron Breakker, I’m the best NXT has to offer right now and I’m aware of that and I’m aware of what this title represents and what my responsibility is. It’s very cool to me to be in this position, to be able to do what I’m doing and to prove the doubters wrong and prove the people who support me right.”