Michael Elgin & Tommaso Ciampa Talk Saturday's ROH IPPV, WWE, TNA, More
ROH stars Michael Elgin and Tommaso Ciampa appeared on Wrestling Heels Radio to discuss their match at ROH "Best In The World" this Saturday on iPPV. We will have live coverage of the iPPV here at WrestlingINC.com at 5pm ET. They sent us these highlights from the interview:
We're talking about Ring of Honor tonight, but I know we've got a lot of followers who will wonder is there a chance we can see Michael Elgin in the WWE or TNA anytime soon?
Michael Elgin: "I never say never, but there's quite a few things that I wanna accomplish before I go elsewhere, so I'm gonna make sure I accomplish them first... Number one is definitely becoming a Ring of Honor world champion, and number two is competing in Japan."
June 22nd, Ring of Honor, Best in the World. iPPV. This match, according to Michael Elgin, will be the match of the night. It will steal the show. Tommaso, you didn't get a chance to talk yet, so let's start with you. What's your preparation for this match on the 22nd?
Tommaso Ciampa: "You know. Match of the night does sound good, but the more I watch Michael Elgin's footage, and I respect the hell out of the guy. He's a hell of a competitor. I would love to be the man who puts Elgin away in under five minutes. Seems to kinda be my thing in Ring of Honor, so if I can knock him out early, I'll knock him out early, 'cause we all know he can go the distance, and it's not like I'm gonna tire the guy out in 20 minutes, but I'm gonna go for the kill and I'm gonna go for it right away."
Elgin: "I'm going into it just like I go into any other big match. I know where Tommaso's sitting, I know that he wants to prove to everybody just how good he is, and he chose me to prove to them how good he is. And I gotta tell him, and I gotta tell everybody listening that I'm the wrong person to pick when you wanna prove something. Five minutes, that's a dream. The only way this ends in five minutes is if your shoulders hit the mat, Tommaso."
Another question for you, Tommaso, is that you were on the sidelines for nine months. What is that nine months like psychologically to a professional wrestler?
Ciampa: "It's the s–ts, man. You eat every meal alone, rehab eight hours a day, two a days, three a days. It sucks. Every single time I walk up the steps to my apartment complex, I think to myself, 'Man, I had to hobble up and own these steps one at a time, crutch after crutch.' Every time I bring groceries home, I'd think, 'Jesus Christ, this was freaking Hell trying to figure out how to be my f-cking steaks and milks and everything else upstairs.
"How do you do it? It sucked. My entire life was stopped. People don't realize that. Wrestling pays our bills. When I can't wrestle, it's not just, 'Aw, man, I don't get to go out there and dress up in spandex and have fun.' I lose my livelihood. Every single thing that I know, everything I do, all my travel, my entire life changes. It sucks. It makes you realize exactly what you have. I'm not gonna take anything for granted.
"Every time I walk out in the ring right now, I feel blessed. But every single time I walk out in the ring and I walk in the gym and I do anything else in my day-to-day life, I'm focused. I'm staying healthy. I'm working my ass off, and putting myself in a better position. And that's what 'Best in the World' offers me. It's my first real opportunity to prove to everybody that ? I have a lot of doubters out there, and I get it. I understand all the doubt. That's fine.
"Doubt doesn't motivate me. I motivate me. And that rehab, man, that just ? that gave me ? it was a blessing in disguise. It gave me a chance to step away from it all and evaluate myself, figure out what my weaknesses were. I don't feel like I have a single weakness walking into Best in the World, and I'm gonna prove that with a guy like Michael Elgin."
Leave the listeners with some parting words for Best in the World to make them wanna buy this iPay-Per-View for this match.
Elgin: "I don't care if you order Best in the World just to watch me and Tommaso, then you turn it off. You start with our match and you end with our match. That's the match you wanna see. I don't care what your take is on Ring of Honor. I don't care what your take is on any other match. This is the match you wanna see. Not just at Best in the World, not just for Ring of Honor. For pro wrestling as a whole in 2013 this is the match you wanna see. So you order it, you watch it, and you tell everybody else that you know to order it and watch it. And then you tell the world how good it was after."
Ciampa: "Yeah, man. There's certain moments in sports, let alone wrestling, you don't wanna miss, and this is gonna be one the moments 'cause there will never again be a first time for Ciampa versus Elgin. And the entrances alone are gonna be worth the price of an iPPV. Sh-t's gonna be real cool, and lights are gonna be flicking, and it's gonna be a hell of a time. And then the action is just gonna be the icing on the cake, because like Elgin said many times now, this will be a war and it's two big, bad, tough sons of b—–s who are just nothing hit each other real damn hard.
"So if I had some change in my pocket, I think I would put all that right into the iPPV, the 'Best in the World' and stick around for the whole show 'cause I'd like you to compare us to everybody else and realize you've seen something real, real special."
Source: Wrestling Heels Radio