Randy Orton recently spoke with Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports about his beef with Tommaso Ciampa and past comments made by the former NXT Champion.
Last December, Ciampa came out and stated that if he’s ever called up to the main roster whether that be RAW or SmackDown, he would retire. The reason for that is due to his history of neck problems.
Last March, Ciampa suffered a neck injury that ultimately led to him getting surgery and relinquishing the NXT Title.
Orton started out by talking about how he watched Ciampa’s ‘Black Heart’ documentary on WWE Network that followed him around after his neck surgery. Orton admitted that he teared up a bit when he saw Ciampa wake up from surgery and his beautiful little daughter was sitting on his lap. He called it heartwarming.
Orton stated that he wants Ciampa to have a long, healthy career and retire instead of going to get a new trade or work somewhere else to provide for his family. He stated that wrestling is a business and wrestlers need to make money.
“I would think, no matter how much you love NXT, you’ve got to look at the bigger picture. If you don’t think you’re going to last on the road for Raw and SmackDown? Do something about it. Go and sign a contract that calls for you to only show up at TV.
They do NXT every week and they do a TakeOver whenever. They’re wrestling about as much as we’re wrestling, especially right now. With the future and no one knowing how many shows we’re going to be putting on, I think it’s a bit of a cop out to say, ‘I can get four years of NXT versus one year of Raw or SmackDown.'”
Orton continued by noting that the type of hustle Ciampa has shown makes him believe that Ciampa is capable of doing that.
“I think he’s a big fish in a relatively small pond. I don’t mean that as a knock, to be clear.”
Orton noted that he wants to see Ciampa become a big fish in a bigger pond. He also wants to see Ciampa under the pressure to have something like the greatest wrestling match ever. He added that he would love to work with Ciampa.
