Tommaso Ciampa (Tommaso Whitney) has opened up on an interesting episode from the past involving him and The Undertaker (Mark William Calaway). Even before he became a star on WWE's NXT, he had made cameos and he has now thrown light at one such incident when he was chokeslammed by the Dead Man.
Speaking on the State of Combat podcast, Tommaso Ciampa has revealed that he was staying in Boston, Massachusetts, and the WWE event was close to his place when he got to do an act.
"I was training at Killer Kowalski's old place, and at that time it was the Chaotic Training Center but now it is the New England Training Academy, but we were kind of the feeding ground. Anytime WWE was in the northeast area that is who they would call," WrestlingInc quotes him as saying in the podcast. The company was looking for a man with smaller size and he was selected among the three by the WWE.
Tommaso Ciampa claims that he was offered to act the role of a lawyer. Interestingly, he was not that nervous as he was comfortable with the microphone. As he was doing the said character, there was no need for him to memorise the lines and just have to read out whatever is written on paper.
"But the day itself was crazy, because once I got picked, it was probably 4 pm at the time. It was an important angle for WWE because maybe a week or two prior, Mohammad Hassan and Davari had done something to upset the executives or whatever it was at the time, or maybe it was UPN, or whatever it was. It was around the time of the terrorists so it just didn't sit well with people," he adds.
The 34-year old says that the apology part should appear sincere, making The Undertaker to appear before him. Tommaso Ciampa had rehearising his lines well, first before Vince McMahon, then in ring with The Undertaker, Vince McMahon and Triple H.
He continues, "Looking back now, it's like I see how big of a deal it was and how crazy it was to have that one-on-one time with everybody as a 20-year-old kid on the independents. It was wild. Everyone treated me incredibly well. I remember that they didn't like the suit that I had on so they went and bought me a suit and let me keep it." He praises Stephanie McMahon for giving a tour of WWE backstage which eased his nervousness.
Ciampa further adds that being with The Undertaker in the ring remains one of his big moments of his career. "Obviously, being in the ring with The Undertaker one of the biggest highlights of my career, but that backstage time being with Stephanie, Hunter, and Vince and how everyone was towards me that probably had a bigger impact on my career than anything else that happened that day," he ends.
The video of The Undertaker's chokeslam can be watched below:
