WWE Raw Star Finally Returns From Injury
Tommaso Ciampa finally returned to action on this week's Monday Night Raw, answering an open challenge from The Miz. The former NXT Champion had been on the shelf since last September with a surgery-requiring hip injury and immediately attacked his former tag partner (later explaining that Miz never so much as sent him a text message during his long recovery). He picked up the victory over "The A-Lister" with his Fairytale Ending finisher
Ciampa was once positioned as one of NXT's biggest stars and once Paul Levesque took over WWE booking it looked like he was going to be an immediate benefactor. Shortly before his injury, Ciampa challenged Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship.
"Yeah (I'm excited to work with him) and I was excited for what we were doing too," Ciampa told ComicBook ahead of last year's SummerSlam. "I never worked with Vince, and the little I got to work with him I was like 'ah, this guy is a genius. This is interesting, I want to pick his brain.' I worked with Hunter (and I said), 'This guy is a genius, I want to pick his brain.' It's exciting to be on the inside of what, 20 years from now, we are likely going to look back on and go, 'Whoa, stuff started to shift there.' It's just natural. To me, that's cool. I don't know what to expect, all I can do is what I've been doing. I can control what I can control. I'll look good, I'll be in shape, I can cut a promo if you want me to cut a promo. Aside from that, whatever you want I'll do it to the best of my ability."
He also talked in that same interview about the NXT call-up process and how storylines from NXT will slowly need to be reintroduced on the main roster. It's been rumored that Ciampa will reunite with former rival/best friend Johnny Gargano as the DIY tag team.
"Even if the character stays the same, that new audience still needs to know who they are. It's not like (Johnny) Gargano and Ciampa can have a feud and it just continues on Raw because a whole lot of people would be lost. They wouldn't understand the friendship, they wouldn't understand the tag team, they wouldn't understand the turn. I still think regardless of who is in charge of creative, when people debut we need to present them to a new audience," Ciampa added.