Tommaso Ciampa Shares Honest Thoughts On Current State Of NXT

WWE

Two-time NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa has shared his honest thoughts on the current state of NXT compared to previous iterations of the brand.

Ciampa, to many fans, is among the stars most synonymous with NXT’s peak ‘black and gold’ years prior to its NXT 2.0 relaunch in 2021, competing in some of the brand’s greatest ever matches and storylines.

After once stating he never wanted to compete on WWE’s main roster, Ciampa did in fact make the jump to Raw in early 2022 and has gone on to have moderate success thus far, most recently competing for GUNTHER’s Intercontinental Championship on Raw (October 2).

Despite a DIY reunion now finally occurring and the future looking bright, Ciampa does still have one eye on his former home of NXT.

Speaking with Corey Graves on WWE’s After The Bell podcast, Ciampa revealed that he was actually present for an NXT show recently.

Whilst there he picked up a vibe reminiscent of the brand’s glory days, something he feels was perhaps lost with the 2.0. branding, he explained to Graves:

“So I actually stopped by the Performance Center and the vibe there and the energy, I don’t want to say it’s — It is. It’s exactly what it used to be.

“It had a tough spin. It had a tough time with NXT 2.0, the adjustments, the color scheme changes. Everything. The vibe was different for a while.

“It’s hungry again and it’s competitive again and it’s a team effort again. It was a really cool thing to see and I kept saying that to everybody down there. All the producers & head coaches, Shawn (Michaels), Matt (Bloom), everybody.

“That crowd was as electric as anything I’d ever seen for a TakeOver. It was the first time watching that I thought ‘Man, this is the Black and Gold feel.’ They were crazy.”

NXT’s implementation of main roster names such as Dominik Mysterio and Becky Lynch have seen great success in regards to viewership for the program, however Ciampa feels the development of the young stars such as Carmelo Hayes, Trick Williams and NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov have really connected with the audience.

Ciampa continued:

“All these new talents and acts have now stepped past that point of being new and they’re developed and they have characters and they’ve got backstory. You can connect. It was cool to see.

“It’s cool to see Carmelo Hayes be a full package. It’s cool to see Trick Williams break out like crazy over the last few months.

“Ilja Dragunov is next level. He is full package and ready to go. You can toss that guy on a pay-per-view tomorrow and he is going to deliver.”

NXT and AEW are set to go head-to-head this coming Tuesday, October 10, with both companies stacking their respective shows with star power and major matches.

To catch up on what to expect on October 10 check this link here.

Transcript courtesy of SEScoops

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• NXT 2.0
• Tommaso Ciampa
• nxt
• wwe

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