Triple H on Tommaso Ciampa Saying He’d Retire Before Going to Raw or Smackdown, Ciampa Working as a Producer For EVOLVE

– On the latest After the Bell, Triple H commented on Tomasso Ciampa recently saying he threatened to retire if he had to move off NXT to Raw or Smackdown. Ciampa told Lilian Garcia that he did not want to move off NXT and said, “now it’s become a thing where I’ve legitimately vocalized to them like, if I have to go to RAW or Smackdown, I’m going to retire, and I would love to produce or coach or be a part of it, but there is no way that I’m taking on that load and going, ‘Yeah you know what, I’ll just have a six month run and then call it quits.’”

Asked by Graves about the subject, Triple H said that it was a workload management thing and that Ciampa is already learning to do things that will prepare him for his career in wrestling after his in-ring career is over. Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On Ciampa saying he’d retire before going to Raw and Smackdown: “I think there’s a part of Ciampa, though — that comes down to wear and tear and physicality of, in his current place physically, could he handle the schedule? Could he handle the grind and the wear and tear and everything else of a full run on Raw or Smackdown, right? It’s a different — that’s a different beast. And even though that schedule has now dropped and has become much more manageable, especially if you have a family and everything else. But for him, he probably looks at it and says, ‘Look, if I was on the main roster, I have a run that’s this long. If I was on NXT with a lessened schedule and much more manageable, I have a run that’s this long.’ He’d rather do this for a long period of time and then transition into doing all the other stuff that he loves.”

On Ciampa doing other stuff: “I’ll tell you, when the time is right, he’ll be a phenomenal coach. He’ll be a phenomenal backstage producer. We’re letting him get experienced in that now. He goes to EVOLVE right now, and he’ll go there and he’ll sign autographs or whatever. But then during the day, he’s a producer. He goes and he pulls the role that we do, right? He goes there and he’s passing on that knowledge to those kids, and he’s a producer and an agent there. And helps with their shows and does everything else. And then when they’re producing the television event or the digital whatever it is that night, he’s helping with that. He’s picking up the things that we’re teaching him, and he’s putting it someplace else. And that’s gonna translate long-term in his career too.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE’s After the Bell with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.