Triple H Confirms Tommaso Ciampa Is Ahead of Schedule on His Injury Recovery

Tommaso Ciampa might be back in a WWE sooner than expected. Back in early March the news broke that the reigning NXT Champion (at the time) would have to undergo neck surgery, and that it would require he be out of action for at least six months. He was forced to relinquish the NXT Championship, end his years-long feud with Johnny Gargano and undergo anterior cervical fusion surgery. His last WWE appearance came at NXT TakeOver: New York, when he (out of character) appeared on the entrance stage alongside Gargano as "Johnny Wrestling" celebrated finally winning the NXT Championship.

But at the start of NXT TakeOver: XXV's kickoff show on Saturday night, Ciampa appeared with some good news, stating that he had been officially cleared for non-contact training. He followed up by saying it'd only be a matter of time before he'd be back to try and get his hands on NXT's top title, which now belongs to Adam Cole.

.@AdamColePro

pic.twitter.com/iw0U0IBYjU

— CIAMPA (@ProjectCiampa) June 2, 2019

Triple H gave a status update on Ciampa during the post-show media conference call.

"He can talk, which is what he was doing at the moment. He's ahead of schedule. He's doing extremely well, ahead of schedule on all of it and moving along," he said. "But with the type of injury that he had and with type of surgery that he had... from a physicality standpoint, you're not doing anything until you're 100%. It's not like you can go in there and lightly take suplexes, you know? You've got to be 100%. So he's still got a ways to go. But he's way ahead of the curve and the schedule. For him, chomping at the bit every day is too long, and he's chomping at the bit to come back.

"I called [him] this weekend and had him come here because I just wanted him to be here, just talking to him I feelt like needs to be around this," he continued. "He's at the PC every day and he's around it, but this is is different."

After beating Gargano in a Chicago Street Fight at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II, Ciampa moved on to the NXT Championship picture and won the title from Aleister Black on a July episode of NXT. He then successfully defended the title against Gargano, Velveteen Dream and Black and different TakeOver events, eventually bringing Gargano over to his side as a heel. However Gargano turned back babyface right before Ciampa's injury, setting up a final encounter between the two that fans are still patiently waiting to see.