Tommaso Ciampa Talks WWE NXT “Takeover: IYH” Set, Which WWE Legend He Received Advice From, More

As seen above, Tommaso Ciampa recently spoke with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes to promote Sunday’s match against Karrion Kross at the WWE NXT “Takeover: In Your House” event. The show also issued highlights from the interview.

There’s been a lot of fan speculation on if WWE will use a set similar to the classic In Your House set for Sunday’s big event. Ciampa was asked if old school fans should get their hopes up for Sunday’s set.

“I think it is fair to get your hopes up,” Ciampa said. “I’ve got my hopes up. It’s the first question I asked if I’m honest with you. The one thing I’m hoping for on top of that is to see a Todd Pettengill sighting at some point. I don’t know on that one, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.

“I’ve heard promising things on the set. I don’t know if that means the old set or a renewed version of it. I know that everybody understands how excited the fanbase is for In Your House. It’s one of those weird ones right? It just stuck with all of us. Yeah, I think everyone’s gonna be happy with what’s been produced.”

Ciampa, who previously returned from a serious neck injury, revealed that he leaned on another pro wrestler who returned from a career-ending neck injury during the rivalry with Johnny Gargano. That wrestler was WWE Hall of Famer Edge. Ciampa revealed that Edge visited the WWE Performance Center and gave his contact information out to several talents.

“Edge was like in my back pocket the whole time,” Ciampa said of leaning on Edge during the rivalry. “I don’t know when exactly it started, I think it was just after New Orleans but he came down to the Performance Center and we got chatting then he told a bunch of us if we wanted to throw ideas at him, you know, he gave us his phone number or his email address or whatever it was and I just took him up on it.

“I think it was shortly after I won the title I started sending him kinda my thought process or my outline and ask him, ‘Hey am I missing anything? Is there anything you’d embellish?’ He kinda became my sounding board as far as prepping to go into matches. How do I make sure I get booed and not get cheered? He’s got such a great mind for wrestling. I think it’d be great if he one day took on a role like Shawn Michaels has now in NXT.”

Ciampa also discussed how he kept the essence of his character when going from a heel to babyface on the black & yellow brand. He revealed a big piece of advice he got from Edge.

“I think real life assisted me,” Ciampa said. “Having the neck injury and having it be public and having people follow me around for the documentary and in the process I went from a villain who really kept the curtain closed from the fans where I’d be Tommaso Ciampa at all times, on social media and stuff to, ‘Oh wait he’s got a wife and a kid and his career almost ended.’ So I think real life just came in and intercepted and kinda did the work for me.

“Edge was a big factor there too. I remember when I was returning and asking him if he had any advice and his biggest piece of advice was, ‘You don’t change a thing. You can evolve but the second you walk out the curtain for the first time, the person remember and the person they’ve missed, you gotta give them that person, not a new version of that person.’ I held that close to my heart from that day for months and I think even now I don’t think I’ve changed all that much. There’s that part of you as a performer that when you’re told you’re gonna be a fan favorite, you think, ‘Oh man, I better smile more and be kinder, let the people in more.’ I kinda had to fight all those instincts and just be like, ‘No, no no, you’re gonna walk at the same pace, do everything with the same cadence, do everything the same.’”