WrestlingNews.co’s Steve Fall interviewed Tommaso Ciampa ahead of the Six-Pack Ladder Match at WWE WrestleMania 40.
In recent months, Ciampa and Gargano have been paying tribute to D-Generation X. Ciampa said that there will be a nod to them at WrestleMania.
Ciampa said, “The DX stuff was a lot of fun considering coming up trained by Hunter and Shawn so much at the Performance Center in NXT. So that’s cool. We got a little nod to them planned for Saturday, so that’ll be a lot of fun too. It’s just been a great time all around.”
On how to make a ladder match stand out at WrestleMania:
“I think as far as I know, this is the biggest ladder match they’ve ever had at WWE. 12 dudes like that’s absurd. So that alone the idea that there’s two sets of titles hanging up there, that’s twice the ladders for that. There’s a lot of cool stuff that could be done so hopefully we wow people.”
On the transition from the Blackheart/Goldie character from NXT to the main roster:
“You know, it’s all evolution of characters. Like, if I walked in NXT on day one, and I was Blackheart, I don’t know that it would have transcended and worked. But when you’re part of an underdog tag team, best friends, there’s a turn there. There’s reason for hatred. So I mean, we’re in a lot of ways, we’re setting the same layers and bricks on the main roster. So hopefully the day does come where I can bring out that side of me because that is my most comforting side for myself.”
On being portrayed as an evil heel and then fans seeing his real side when he got injured:
“There was a conversation about that, because the idea was I broke my neck, I had to get surgery, they were going to document it not knowing if we would use it or not. They watched it and it was a weird dilemma of this is really good, we should use it. But boy does this kill the character. But we also knew the character had to evolve. So by the time I would come back, it’d be a different character anyways, I think there’s still a lot of groundwork to be laid with the Blackheart persona. It’s just a matter of getting back there storyline-wise.”
Ciampa on what Bray Wyatt meant to him:
“The best way to describe him is a dude who you come up to and you feel like you’ve known him forever, because he makes you feel that way. Like for instance, the first time I ever met him. He greeted me with a warm hug. We talked for about 15 minutes. And when I walked away, I questioned myself. I was like, Maybe I’ve met him before like maybe we’ve talked before. He made me feel like we were just best buddies. So he was one of those guys where like everybody was like, you hear like a wrestlers wrestler or brother on the road like that was Bray, family guy, just a good dude to be around.”
On his favorite WrestleMania match or moment:
“I will say Kofimania meant a lot to me because we came up together. We trained together way back in the day. Watching Bryan [Danielson] have his moment at [WrestleMania] 30. It’s almost like every every 10, 20 30, you always get that big triumphant babyface moment. Those little ones jump out the most of you because there’s so much story and emotion in those.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
