Ciampa Gives Update On How Many More Years He Thinks He Will Be Able To Wrestle
While many previously believed that Ciampa would not have interest in joining the main WWE roster due to his injury history, among other circumstances, the Blackheart recently made the transition after over six years of being in developmental. "I was in, I don't want to say an abnormal amount of pain, but an abnormal amount of discomfort for years with my neck and I kept a lot of it to myself because I figured if I ever get a picture of this thing, it's not going to look good," two-time "NXT" Champion Ciampa said while on "Out of Character with Ryan Satin." "They called me into the office and they're like, 'Hey, we got your MRI back, you know, the results, and it was bad' ... Coming out the other end, not only do I feel good, not only do I have function and strength back, I feel better."
"I'm like, 'Wait, I thought I only had a few years left. I might have 10 or 20 years left.' So once you start opening that up and you don't put an expiration date on your career, it was like, 'Okay, what do I want to accomplish?'" Ciampa was "NXT" Champion for 238 days in his first run with the belt and he would never actually lose it. Instead, Ciampa was forced to vacate the title due to injury prior to "NXT" Takeover: New York in 2019. The Blackheart has since won the "NXT" Title for a second time — after "NXT" had been rebranded to "NXT 2.0" — and eventually lost the title to Bron Breakker after spending 112 days as champion.
Following WrestleMania 38, Ciampa made the jump from "NXT" to "Raw," aiding The Miz for a few weeks before completely aligning himself with the A-Lister in Miz's feud with Logan Paul. Ciampa's role with Vince McMahon still in charge of creative was more limited, to the point where he would not get very long matches and he would barely receive chances to cut promos on live TV. However, since Vince McMahon retired and Triple H took over as Head of Creative, Ciampa has received more opportunities to showcase his talents on "Raw."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Out of Character with Ryan Satin" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.