Tommaso Ciampa Is WWE’s Next Big Thing
Tommaso Ciampa is great. He’s been great for ages, but a whole bunch more people are about to realise it. Ciampa is an NXT veteran, sticking around WWE’s formerly black and gold brand for longer than most, headlining pay-per-view after pay-per-view in a long-running feud against Johnny Gargano. He has progressed to the big leagues (if NXT can even be considered a little league any more), and despite his adversary leaving the company, Ciampa still has a bright future ahead of him.
You probably don’t remember Ciampa’s first run in WWE. He was called Thomas Whitney, for a start, which is much more boring. He was a lawyer (again, boring) for Muhammad Hassan and was in the ring with Undertaker once. Not to wrestle, to read an announcement. I’ve got all this from Wikipedia because I guarantee you nobody in the world remembers this Ciampa. Sorry, this Whitney.
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Ciampa really started making waves when he wrestled regularly for Ring of Honor. Four years after his WWE career had apparently ended, he joined the likes of Adam Cole, Jay Lethal, and Adam Page in regular matches. Even an only-watches-PPVs wrestling fan will know those names from their regular main events in AEW, so why has Ciampa not reached those levels of stardom yet?
Injuries are the major thing. His RoH run was littered with minor quibbles – broken ribs, torn ACL – but nothing compares to a serious neck problem that required surgery during his time in NXT.
The other thing holding Ciampa back was his own success. His love/hate relationship with Gargano – the classic tag-team partners to enemies storyline – was NXT’s best pairing since Samoa Joe and Finn Balor. His run as heel NXT Champion with ‘Goldy’ (his name
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