Tommaso Ciampa On What He Told WWE Officials About A Possible Move From WWE NXT To The Main Roster
Tommaso Ciampa recently appeared on Lilian Garcia's "Chasing Glory" podcast and said he's WWE NXT 4 Life. He talked about telling WWE officials that he's not willing to move to RAW or SmackDown.
"Before, I just didn't want to because I really believed in NXT and wanted to ride it," Ciampa said. (H/T to Pro Wrestling Sheet) "I wanted to see how far we could take it. Now it's hit a whole different level of ? there is that, but I have a little one at home and my schedule is better in NXT than it would be on the road."
Ciampa continued, "I had neck surgery and I'm not freaking stupid. I get that my window is smaller than it was and my bump card is ticking. I just look at like, if I'm doing 200 plus dates a year on the road with Raw or SmackDown OR I'm doing a manageable load of 30 to 50 matches with NXT ? I can do 4 years of that in the time that I do 1 year on Raw or SmackDown. So how long can my career and portfolio grow HERE as opposed to going there."
The former NXT Champion, who is currently feuding with NXT Champion Adam Cole with his eye on regaining the title he had when he was forced on the shelf with a neck injury, claimed he's told WWE officials that he will retire from in-ring competition if they try to move him to the main roster.
"I legitimately vocalized to them, if I have to go to Raw or SmackDown then I'm gonna retire," Ciampa claimed. "I would love to produce or coach or be apart of it, but there's no way I'm taking on that load and going, 'Yeah, I'll just have a 6-month run and then call it quits.' I just won't do that. It's not worth it to me."