Tommaso Ciampa was finally able to check a major goal off his WWE bucket list back in April.
Despite being a part of the company since 2015 and called up to the main roster in 2022, the former NXT Champion has never competed at a WrestleMania until the 2024 event where he and Johnny Gargano were one of 6 teams to contest for the Tag Team Championships in a ladder match.
Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful about the journey to WrestleMania, Ciampa admitted there were doubts over having a match at the event both before he signed the contract and while in NXT as the brand was picking up a lot of steam:
“Oh, yeah. For sure. I mean, there was a lot of doubt pre-signing with WWE ‘cause after I left Kentucky and all that, it was like, ‘Oh, maybe that was just a silly dream. Maybe that won’t happen.’ Honestly being part of the company and stuff, there was a time NXT was so hot that I didn’t really see anything outside of NXT. It was like, ‘We’re building this. This is our baby. We’re gonna take this as far as we can.’
The pandemic changed a lot of stuff and we’re still seeing so many after effects of that in the entire wrestling industry and obviously the world. I think that opened up a whole new platform for us and made us start to look at this as an option. To finally get here, dude, nine years later? My gosh.”
Tommaso Ciampa Still Looking To Hit Unlikely Goal
While Ciampa has finally had that first WrestleMania match and could become a Tag Team Champion alongside Gargano on the July 5th episode of SmackDown, the WWE star is still attempting to deliver an RKO to Randy Orton for reasons unknown. Currently on his third attempt, Ciampa utilised a disguise in the hopes of hitting The Apex Predator with his own manoeuvre.