Ciampa on His In-Ring Future, How He’s Able to Work WWE’s Main Roster, More

Ciampa says he’s able to work WWE’s main roster due to the company’s reduced road schedule and his successful neck surgery.

Ciampa previously stated in 2019 how he was not interested in WWE’s “300 day” schedule for the main roster. However, Ciampa recently appeared on “Out of Character” and revealed what has changed since then, allowing him to work the main roster as a RAW Superstar.

“300 days doesn’t exist anymore. So, that was big and that was something that just kind of recently became a shift,” Ciampa said in regards to the WWE live event schedule. “Prior to the pandemic, it slowed, and then now it’s just a whole new game. The pandemic itself, the neck surgery, and how it all went down and I was home almost every single night of Willow’s [his daughter] first three years. You build such a relationship with your child in those first few years.”

Ciampa continued and added that his 4 year old daughter has traveled with him on some live event loops.

“Having the time at home with her for the pandemic, the schedule changing for the main roster, and interest in wrestling in general,” he said. “Those were two big factors and then the success of the neck surgery. 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.”

Ciampa added that his neck surgery was so successful that he feels like he could wrestle another 10-20 years.

“You don’t know the discomfort when it’s your norm, and it was my norm,” he said. “So, now all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Whoa, like I feel amazing, I’m getting back in the ring. I’m bumping. I’m having matches, we’re doing WarGames, I way overdo it in Portland just to see if I can as a personal test type of thing.

“I’m like, ‘Wait, I thought I only had a few years left, but 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?’ Because I honestly felt like when I won the NXT Title, that was it for me. I’ve hit my pinnacle, I have this crappy neck, I’m probably in my twilight. Now we have this healthy neck, now we have this healthy baby, we have all this time at home, everything changed in such a great way.”

Ciampa came up short against WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley on last week’s RAW. It’s believed that he will continue to receive a push under the new regime.

Below is the full interview with Ciampa: