September 20, 2024 • 17 mins
We sat down with #WWE superstar @CiampaWWE ahead of SmackDown’s return to Nashville on October 4th! Ciampa discusses his incredible character evolution, from his days as 'The Blackheart' to his current persona, and how his real-life influences shape his on-screen presence. He also gives insight into the differences between NXT and the main roster, Triple H’s leadership, and his dream tag team opponents, including the possibility of facing the Motor City Machine Guns. Don’t miss this must-watch interview!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast. You'll please for all things resting.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Podcast stop it.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
What's up you guys? It is Battle from one oh
five nine in the Rock, Nashville's Classic Rock and iHeartRadio's
official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast, and we are super
excited coming up here Friday night SmackDown Live from the
Bridge Don Arena, October fourth, and on the show today,
I really wanted to do this, but I was like,
he's done this so many times a day. I was
(00:44):
gonna say, we got triple H, but I'm not doing it.
We got Tamasa Champa on the show with us, Sarah,
how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I'm fantastic And you can go ahead with your triple
H all you want. I do get it all the time,
even prior to our Truth, I got it all.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So yeah, it's been ten years worth. Now.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I gotta ask, like, because we've had Truth on before,
you're doing those segments with him on live TV? How
hard is it to not like just start busting out
laughing when he started doing those things.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So the cool part with Truth is that he added
libs almost everything he does, and which is not the
case for everybody. You know, Like obviously you try to
roughly stay to a script or whatnot. But even when
you're kind of like brainstorming or just you know, going
(01:36):
back and forth and oh, we could do this or that,
I feel like he like knows what he's gonna do
or say, but.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
He's like, I'm gonna hold this one. I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
He doesn't want to tell you until the camera's on
and the lights on, so he does.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's this that he tries to crack.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Guys, I'm pretty decent at putting myself in a whole
different place when the camera's on and it's I think
I'm very hard to uh.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I don't. I don't believe he got me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Ever, if he did it, it would somebody would have
to tell me or show me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But yeah, he's he's been.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
He's so funny and he's such a good ad liber
And that's the hardest part is when someone can just
do it off the cuff like he can. That's years
and years of it though he's been at it for
like what twenty something years now. He's so darn good,
he's so entertaining, so funny, such a cool dude two backstage,
like just one of the best.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, absolutely, and uh we we talk about the best,
and I would think on this show one of the
best tag teams in WW. Of course it's got to
be d I Y when you think about tag teams,
one of the most beloved tag teams in NXT history.
How do you feel about the d Y from NXT
compared to this main roster d I Y.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I feel like a year ago and now is different. Answers, Right,
I think we're I think we're finally in our groove.
I think it took us a bit, though, and we
expected it to be honest, because what the DIY was
in NXT was very organic, very natural, very created by
the crowd and the NXT audience, and it was just
(03:15):
so easy to overlap truth and creative. Two kids, independent
wrestlers weren't signed to a contract, get these opportunities. Crowd
brings us back, brings us back, brings us back, It
becomes its own thing. May roster. Now you're looking like, okay,
well fast forward eight years and they're not just ending
(03:38):
kids anymore. So we couldn't go back to the same like, hey,
well this worked the first time, it's going to work
the second time. In reality, we had fought each other
for three four years. We went to war together. I
kind of developed into this black art persona. He became
Johnny Wrestling, So it took us a year to kind
of figure out, Okay, like, what is the dynamic now
(03:59):
of this version of Johnny, this version of Champa and
how do they blend and how does that work? And
I honestly think we just just hit our stride in
the last few months kind of on the outskirts after WrestleMania,
end of our time on Raw coming into SmackDown.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But now I'm I'm really liking what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Like we had a promo that on digital this last
week and it was the first time I watched something
back and went, Okay, yeah, we're really in our pocket
again of I can be me, you can be you,
and this is the new version of what we're going
to present as dy and I'm excited for what that
potentially is going to lead to. But yeah, we're in
(04:44):
that groove now in ring We've we've been in it,
but character wise, we're finally right.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And you mentioned character and the evolution of you has
been tremendous. You go from being a lawyer to a
wrestler to the black cart to where you are now
has been absolutely incredible to watch. How much of your
real life persona influences who you are on WWE television.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'd say quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I don't know, like it's hard to overlap everything, Like
I don't know if the character has the same value.
I guess they do deep into that, but to some
extent and wrestling, it's like you just are who you are.
You know, like the way you look, your voice, the
way your style and the ring all that stuff plays
into the character. Like you can't act a certain way
(05:43):
with a microphone and then a different way when you're rerestling,
and then the two don't coincide. So it's when you're
doing it. I've been doing it. I'm coming up on
my twentieth year. Like it all just evolves into one
thing where you're like, yeah, Like this is the closest
version I believe you'll get of me as a human
(06:04):
being as a wrestling persona. The difference always is when
I turn heel because I prefer being a heel, uh
and I find a lot of pleasure and like I
think in everything, right, Like in your real life, you
get those friends of yours they might have started ticks
and you realize their ticks and you know.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's a little annoying, or that's a little this or that.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I love picking up on those and then putting them
in my back pocket and going, Okay, if I ever
get to turn heel again, I'm gonna do this, this
and that. But even that, that's part of me as
a person. It's it's I'm doing the things I don't like. Yeah,
I'm just you know, putting that forth. So it's it's
such an overlapping thing. You kind of kind of lose
where Tomaso Whitney ends in Tomasco Champion begins. I feel
(06:52):
like it's very much intertwined.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And it's it's fun to see, like you said, how
you twine things here and there. And I will tell
you that I am a hill fan of Tomaso. I
am My seven year old is a big fan of
the baby face tomas which makes me perfect sense. Mary
House Divided in our house when it comes to less.
(07:19):
You know what's been fun to watch and you've had
a front row seat to seeing the growth of NXT,
and of course the transition to WWE's maid and roster.
What do you think is the biggest differences between those
two worlds because you see some people they go to
NXT and then they make the jump to the main
roster and it doesn't seem to click, so they go
back to NXT.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, I'm guessing, and this is just a guest.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think we'll see a little bit less.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Of that in the future, and just because there's a
lot more communication between the two brands now and they're
a lot more in sync. For instance, if you develop
a persona in NXT and it's working. We'll take Trick
Williams for example. Well, I don't think when Trick Williams
comes up to Raw or SmackDown, he's going to be repackaged.
(08:07):
They're gonna have to educate the crowd on who he is.
But he's gonna give you this same Trick Williams that
you've been getting. And I think that was the hardest
part for a long time. You did a thing in NXT,
the thing worked in NXT, then you go to the
main roster and it's like, well, that thing didn't exist,
not in this universe. So we're going to repackage you
and put you in this position, and that's that's very
(08:29):
hard on a performer, Like even speaking first person, I
mean when I came up and I was paired up
with the Miss, I love the Miss. I love Mike
as a person, I love his character. I think he's
fantastic as a wrestler, a performer, performer, but in no way,
shape or form, there's Miss and Toms of Champ of
make any sense as a unit.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know. So that was like, all right, how do
I make this work?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And and how do I how do I do this
and stay true to myself? And like that's where it
becomes very hard to be the real you.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I think we're gonna see less of that now. I
think now there's a lot more. Obviously Sean's running creative.
Hunter's running creative, obviously very good friends. So I think
that's gonna be a way smoother transition for people going forward, which.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Is awesome, yeah for sure. And of course WWE is
just on fire right now. You've got ww rall moving
to Netflix, You've got NXT on c W, You've got
SmackDown move into USA. You've now just got the Saturday
Night show on I mean insane. It's like, eventually it's
(09:34):
gonna be ww is just taking over every single night
on some channel. Walk us through when you guys got
the note that, Hey, we're doing this on Saturday nights
for Saturday Night main event.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, honestly, you don't hear a ton internally, Like it's
you hear rumblings, but you hear the same rumblings that
you hear or anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Else here's who follows the internet.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I didn't know it was official until I saw a
flyer on Twitter like a day or two ago whatever
it was, or at least I didn't know when it was,
what the date was, like you know, I just I
just knew the rumor was there. And then I think
I heard Jesse Vandora was coming back for it, which
is so like one of the things I love about
(10:17):
what Hunter's been doing and what he even did it
in an XT. He's a true fan of the business, right,
so he takes things that he's like, well, I remember
liking this as a fan or enjoying being part of
this as a performer. Let's bring it back King of
the Ring, Let's do the tournament, Like I can't wait
till that tournament becomes a one night tournament again, because
that was like, to me, that's that's the epic King
(10:39):
of the Ring, all matches one night. But sat In
his main event is a great example. He's so good
at bringing back things. Helena Cell's coming back, you know,
war games he brought back. Like it's awesome when he
brings nostalgic stuff back. And then you get now this
new version of it because the business has progressed so
much and you get so much better, you know, camera
(11:00):
work and pyro and tech. It's just being a part
of it, being on the inside during it like fantastic.
Like I just I hope I can just continue and
can continue to contribute to different events like that.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned all the elements that
have been implemented because I've grown up watching wrestling my
entire life. I was there when it was the red,
white and blue ring ropes and then the attitude air
and all this other stuff. So I've seen everything change
and it's really cool to see the little elements changing,
like the production, the camera shots. One thing that I've
(11:36):
noticed a lot here recently with Triple H taking over
is you're seeing more focus on the tag division. You're
seeing more feature of you guys doing more stuff and
not just doing a here's a five minute match or
ten minute match, go out there and do whatever. Because
Triple H has been in that tag team so he
knows what it's like. And how does that feel seeing
(11:58):
that the tag team division is getting elevated even more
every week.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So being on the inside of that, I always want
more and I always wanted to go faster. But I
think that is the normal nature of any competitive it's
not even sport, any competitive business. Like you always want
more than you're getting and you always want it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
To happen faster than it's happening.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Like it's exciting to see tag teams getting that light
shone on them. For example, of the last maybe two
or three pay per views, we've had pretty decent profile
matches on the SmackDown the night before, so, which is
awesome because it's pretty similar crowd and pretty similar energy level,
et cetera. Now what we want is what we got
(12:44):
to get on the plas Like you watch France crowd
from home, you watch anything from you watch SummerSlam from home,
you know, and you're just like, well, that's that's the best.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Crowd you're gonna get.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Like, they're just such a Even when we just did
a tour of Germany and every night was a great crowd,
Berlin crowd was by far the best one, Like, you
want to be a part of that that's commercial free,
that most eyes are on you, biggest stage possible. So
it's very cool that the tag division is starting to
get some prominence, But boy do we want more, you know?
(13:18):
And I think that's just the nature of the beast.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And of course, you know, we talk about the Internet
and people reading reports, and of course there's always that
rumor of certain tag teams coming over one predominantly here
a lot recently is MotorCity machine Guns. Yeah, a tag
team like that coming into ww that's never stepped foot
in that kind of a brand. What would that mean
(13:41):
for the tag team division? Of course, as a fan here,
I'm already thinking DIY versus MotorCity Machine Guns at WrestleMania.
Go ahead and give it to me now if that
ever happens. But what would that mean for a tag
team like them to come into WWE?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, And I think that's the natural go to, at
least from what I see and hear like, for whatever reason,
whether it's our styles or just our size, whatever, everyone
seems to always pair us and those guys together, and
we took some I mean, shoot, they've influenced tag team
wrestling for two decades now, Like we've taken stuff from them,
and concepts from them and ideas from them. I've actually
(14:17):
never wrestled either one of them and singles or tagged
my entire career, so it would be really cool to
have that happen on the WB stage for the first time.
I know Johnny's got a pretty good relationship with Shelley,
He's known him forever. I love those guys. He loves
those guys. We see the same rumors that y'all see,
and shoot, man, if we could get that tag division
(14:38):
to a point where we got four or five, six
different top acts going at once, like that's that's when
you're in it. And so the more competition, the merrier,
Like I welcome that. That elevates your game, it forces
you to elevate.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I think the.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Crowd will take to them extremely fast and really well,
So I hope it happens. I probably wanted to happen
even more than some of the fans.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, we're gonna put that out in the universe, and
we hope to see it at WrestleMania in Vegas. Maybe
give us a ladder match with the tag team titles
between motor You.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Already have five teams in nine for that ladder match.
I'll tell you that that's what you do, right.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You get a lot of two three four hour car
rides and you just fantasy book stuff in your head
and they are at the top of our list.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
That would be an incredible match. And I would say,
if you have anybody who has to follow that match,
if it happens, good luck following that one for sure.
I know we don't have much time left. I gotta
wrap this up here shortly. We're talking about ww SmackDown
returning to Nashville Bridge Don Arena October fourth. You can
still grab tickets ticketmaster dot com. But at the end
of the show, we always like to have fun with
(15:45):
our guests and we turn to our computer analyst, our
chat GBT to let them ask our guests the question.
It's usually off the wall, it's usually random, and today
is off the wall and random. Speaking of tag teams,
if you had to choose a tag team partner for
an apocalypse, but your only options are a broken crutch,
your beard trimmer, or Johnny Gargano in a bunny suit.
(16:08):
Who are you picking to help you out in that apocalypse?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I'm going solo with my broken crutch. Man.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, if you said Johnny Gargana with some sort of
Avengers suit, I would consider it.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But a bunny suit, I'm out. Man. I'll take my crutch,
you'll take the crutch.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I like it. I like it well, Tomaso. I really
do appreciate you spending some time here with us today.
Looking forward to seeing you in Nashville on October fourth.
And before we let you go, is there anything you
want to say or promote before we let you go?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Ww's the machine, right, they do all the promoter and
they do it better than anybody else. We're excited for Nashville.
One of the last times was there was Summer Slam weekend.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
It was insane. We spent the whole week out there.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Like.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I love the area, I love the crowd out there.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Funny that you even say tickets are so available, because
we costly have selling everything out, so if they're available,
they won't be available along to grab them, But yeah,
we're looking forward to it. Man, I have no idea
what I'll be doing that night, but whatever we give
you is gonna one hundred percent, and I hope it's
something spectacular. Maybe we even get motor City machine Guns
to make their debut that who knows, Probably not, it
(17:18):
might
Welcome to the Battleground Podcast. You'll please for all things resting.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Podcast stop it.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
What's up you guys? It is Battle from one oh
five nine in the Rock, Nashville's Classic Rock and iHeartRadio's
official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast, and we are super
excited coming up here Friday night SmackDown Live from the
Bridge Don Arena, October fourth, and on the show today,
I really wanted to do this, but I was like,
he's done this so many times a day. I was
(00:44):
gonna say, we got triple H, but I'm not doing it.
We got Tamasa Champa on the show with us, Sarah,
how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I'm fantastic And you can go ahead with your triple
H all you want. I do get it all the time,
even prior to our Truth, I got it all.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So yeah, it's been ten years worth. Now.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
I gotta ask, like, because we've had Truth on before,
you're doing those segments with him on live TV? How
hard is it to not like just start busting out
laughing when he started doing those things.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
So the cool part with Truth is that he added
libs almost everything he does, and which is not the
case for everybody. You know, Like obviously you try to
roughly stay to a script or whatnot. But even when
you're kind of like brainstorming or just you know, going
(01:36):
back and forth and oh, we could do this or that,
I feel like he like knows what he's gonna do
or say, but.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
He's like, I'm gonna hold this one. I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
He doesn't want to tell you until the camera's on
and the lights on, so he does.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's this that he tries to crack.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Guys, I'm pretty decent at putting myself in a whole
different place when the camera's on and it's I think
I'm very hard to uh.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I don't. I don't believe he got me.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Ever, if he did it, it would somebody would have
to tell me or show me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
But yeah, he's he's been.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
He's so funny and he's such a good ad liber
And that's the hardest part is when someone can just
do it off the cuff like he can. That's years
and years of it though he's been at it for
like what twenty something years now. He's so darn good,
he's so entertaining, so funny, such a cool dude two backstage,
like just one of the best.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Yeah, absolutely, and uh we we talk about the best,
and I would think on this show one of the
best tag teams in WW. Of course it's got to
be d I Y when you think about tag teams,
one of the most beloved tag teams in NXT history.
How do you feel about the d Y from NXT
compared to this main roster d I Y.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I feel like a year ago and now is different. Answers, Right,
I think we're I think we're finally in our groove.
I think it took us a bit, though, and we
expected it to be honest, because what the DIY was
in NXT was very organic, very natural, very created by
the crowd and the NXT audience, and it was just
(03:15):
so easy to overlap truth and creative. Two kids, independent
wrestlers weren't signed to a contract, get these opportunities. Crowd
brings us back, brings us back, brings us back, It
becomes its own thing. May roster. Now you're looking like, okay,
well fast forward eight years and they're not just ending
(03:38):
kids anymore. So we couldn't go back to the same like, hey,
well this worked the first time, it's going to work
the second time. In reality, we had fought each other
for three four years. We went to war together. I
kind of developed into this black art persona. He became
Johnny Wrestling, So it took us a year to kind
of figure out, Okay, like, what is the dynamic now
(03:59):
of this version of Johnny, this version of Champa and
how do they blend and how does that work? And
I honestly think we just just hit our stride in
the last few months kind of on the outskirts after WrestleMania,
end of our time on Raw coming into SmackDown.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But now I'm I'm really liking what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Like we had a promo that on digital this last
week and it was the first time I watched something
back and went, Okay, yeah, we're really in our pocket
again of I can be me, you can be you,
and this is the new version of what we're going
to present as dy and I'm excited for what that
potentially is going to lead to. But yeah, we're in
(04:44):
that groove now in ring We've we've been in it,
but character wise, we're finally right.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
And you mentioned character and the evolution of you has
been tremendous. You go from being a lawyer to a
wrestler to the black cart to where you are now
has been absolutely incredible to watch. How much of your
real life persona influences who you are on WWE television.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'd say quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I don't know, like it's hard to overlap everything, Like
I don't know if the character has the same value.
I guess they do deep into that, but to some
extent and wrestling, it's like you just are who you are.
You know, like the way you look, your voice, the
way your style and the ring all that stuff plays
into the character. Like you can't act a certain way
(05:43):
with a microphone and then a different way when you're rerestling,
and then the two don't coincide. So it's when you're
doing it. I've been doing it. I'm coming up on
my twentieth year. Like it all just evolves into one
thing where you're like, yeah, Like this is the closest
version I believe you'll get of me as a human
(06:04):
being as a wrestling persona. The difference always is when
I turn heel because I prefer being a heel, uh
and I find a lot of pleasure and like I
think in everything, right, Like in your real life, you
get those friends of yours they might have started ticks
and you realize their ticks and you know.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's a little annoying, or that's a little this or that.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I love picking up on those and then putting them
in my back pocket and going, Okay, if I ever
get to turn heel again, I'm gonna do this, this
and that. But even that, that's part of me as
a person. It's it's I'm doing the things I don't like. Yeah,
I'm just you know, putting that forth. So it's it's
such an overlapping thing. You kind of kind of lose
where Tomaso Whitney ends in Tomasco Champion begins. I feel
(06:52):
like it's very much intertwined.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
And it's it's fun to see, like you said, how
you twine things here and there. And I will tell
you that I am a hill fan of Tomaso. I
am My seven year old is a big fan of
the baby face tomas which makes me perfect sense. Mary
House Divided in our house when it comes to less.
(07:19):
You know what's been fun to watch and you've had
a front row seat to seeing the growth of NXT,
and of course the transition to WWE's maid and roster.
What do you think is the biggest differences between those
two worlds because you see some people they go to
NXT and then they make the jump to the main
roster and it doesn't seem to click, so they go
back to NXT.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, I'm guessing, and this is just a guest.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think we'll see a little bit less.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Of that in the future, and just because there's a
lot more communication between the two brands now and they're
a lot more in sync. For instance, if you develop
a persona in NXT and it's working. We'll take Trick
Williams for example. Well, I don't think when Trick Williams
comes up to Raw or SmackDown, he's going to be repackaged.
(08:07):
They're gonna have to educate the crowd on who he is.
But he's gonna give you this same Trick Williams that
you've been getting. And I think that was the hardest
part for a long time. You did a thing in NXT,
the thing worked in NXT, then you go to the
main roster and it's like, well, that thing didn't exist,
not in this universe. So we're going to repackage you
and put you in this position, and that's that's very
(08:29):
hard on a performer, Like even speaking first person, I
mean when I came up and I was paired up
with the Miss, I love the Miss. I love Mike
as a person, I love his character. I think he's
fantastic as a wrestler, a performer, performer, but in no way,
shape or form, there's Miss and Toms of Champ of
make any sense as a unit.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know. So that was like, all right, how do
I make this work?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
And and how do I how do I do this
and stay true to myself? And like that's where it
becomes very hard to be the real you.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I think we're gonna see less of that now. I
think now there's a lot more. Obviously Sean's running creative.
Hunter's running creative, obviously very good friends. So I think
that's gonna be a way smoother transition for people going forward, which.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Is awesome, yeah for sure. And of course WWE is
just on fire right now. You've got ww rall moving
to Netflix, You've got NXT on c W, You've got
SmackDown move into USA. You've now just got the Saturday
Night show on I mean insane. It's like, eventually it's
(09:34):
gonna be ww is just taking over every single night
on some channel. Walk us through when you guys got
the note that, Hey, we're doing this on Saturday nights
for Saturday Night main event.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, honestly, you don't hear a ton internally, Like it's
you hear rumblings, but you hear the same rumblings that
you hear or anyone.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Else here's who follows the internet.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I didn't know it was official until I saw a
flyer on Twitter like a day or two ago whatever
it was, or at least I didn't know when it was,
what the date was, like you know, I just I
just knew the rumor was there. And then I think
I heard Jesse Vandora was coming back for it, which
is so like one of the things I love about
(10:17):
what Hunter's been doing and what he even did it
in an XT. He's a true fan of the business, right,
so he takes things that he's like, well, I remember
liking this as a fan or enjoying being part of
this as a performer. Let's bring it back King of
the Ring, Let's do the tournament, Like I can't wait
till that tournament becomes a one night tournament again, because
that was like, to me, that's that's the epic King
(10:39):
of the Ring, all matches one night. But sat In
his main event is a great example. He's so good
at bringing back things. Helena Cell's coming back, you know,
war games he brought back. Like it's awesome when he
brings nostalgic stuff back. And then you get now this
new version of it because the business has progressed so
much and you get so much better, you know, camera
(11:00):
work and pyro and tech. It's just being a part
of it, being on the inside during it like fantastic.
Like I just I hope I can just continue and
can continue to contribute to different events like that.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned all the elements that
have been implemented because I've grown up watching wrestling my
entire life. I was there when it was the red,
white and blue ring ropes and then the attitude air
and all this other stuff. So I've seen everything change
and it's really cool to see the little elements changing,
like the production, the camera shots. One thing that I've
(11:36):
noticed a lot here recently with Triple H taking over
is you're seeing more focus on the tag division. You're
seeing more feature of you guys doing more stuff and
not just doing a here's a five minute match or
ten minute match, go out there and do whatever. Because
Triple H has been in that tag team so he
knows what it's like. And how does that feel seeing
(11:58):
that the tag team division is getting elevated even more
every week.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So being on the inside of that, I always want
more and I always wanted to go faster. But I
think that is the normal nature of any competitive it's
not even sport, any competitive business. Like you always want
more than you're getting and you always want it.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
To happen faster than it's happening.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Like it's exciting to see tag teams getting that light
shone on them. For example, of the last maybe two
or three pay per views, we've had pretty decent profile
matches on the SmackDown the night before, so, which is
awesome because it's pretty similar crowd and pretty similar energy level,
et cetera. Now what we want is what we got
(12:44):
to get on the plas Like you watch France crowd
from home, you watch anything from you watch SummerSlam from home,
you know, and you're just like, well, that's that's the best.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Crowd you're gonna get.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Like, they're just such a Even when we just did
a tour of Germany and every night was a great crowd,
Berlin crowd was by far the best one, Like, you
want to be a part of that that's commercial free,
that most eyes are on you, biggest stage possible. So
it's very cool that the tag division is starting to
get some prominence, But boy do we want more, you know?
(13:18):
And I think that's just the nature of the beast.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Right for sure.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And of course, you know, we talk about the Internet
and people reading reports, and of course there's always that
rumor of certain tag teams coming over one predominantly here
a lot recently is MotorCity machine Guns. Yeah, a tag
team like that coming into ww that's never stepped foot
in that kind of a brand. What would that mean
(13:41):
for the tag team division? Of course, as a fan here,
I'm already thinking DIY versus MotorCity Machine Guns at WrestleMania.
Go ahead and give it to me now if that
ever happens. But what would that mean for a tag
team like them to come into WWE?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah, And I think that's the natural go to, at
least from what I see and hear like, for whatever reason,
whether it's our styles or just our size, whatever, everyone
seems to always pair us and those guys together, and
we took some I mean, shoot, they've influenced tag team
wrestling for two decades now, Like we've taken stuff from them,
and concepts from them and ideas from them. I've actually
(14:17):
never wrestled either one of them and singles or tagged
my entire career, so it would be really cool to
have that happen on the WB stage for the first time.
I know Johnny's got a pretty good relationship with Shelley,
He's known him forever. I love those guys. He loves
those guys. We see the same rumors that y'all see,
and shoot, man, if we could get that tag division
(14:38):
to a point where we got four or five, six
different top acts going at once, like that's that's when
you're in it. And so the more competition, the merrier,
Like I welcome that. That elevates your game, it forces
you to elevate.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I think the.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Crowd will take to them extremely fast and really well,
So I hope it happens. I probably wanted to happen
even more than some of the fans.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, we're gonna put that out in the universe, and
we hope to see it at WrestleMania in Vegas. Maybe
give us a ladder match with the tag team titles
between motor You.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Already have five teams in nine for that ladder match.
I'll tell you that that's what you do, right.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You get a lot of two three four hour car
rides and you just fantasy book stuff in your head
and they are at the top of our list.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
That would be an incredible match. And I would say,
if you have anybody who has to follow that match,
if it happens, good luck following that one for sure.
I know we don't have much time left. I gotta
wrap this up here shortly. We're talking about ww SmackDown
returning to Nashville Bridge Don Arena October fourth. You can
still grab tickets ticketmaster dot com. But at the end
of the show, we always like to have fun with
(15:45):
our guests and we turn to our computer analyst, our
chat GBT to let them ask our guests the question.
It's usually off the wall, it's usually random, and today
is off the wall and random. Speaking of tag teams,
if you had to choose a tag team partner for
an apocalypse, but your only options are a broken crutch,
your beard trimmer, or Johnny Gargano in a bunny suit.
(16:08):
Who are you picking to help you out in that apocalypse?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
I'm going solo with my broken crutch. Man.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, if you said Johnny Gargana with some sort of
Avengers suit, I would consider it.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
But a bunny suit, I'm out. Man. I'll take my crutch,
you'll take the crutch.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I like it. I like it well, Tomaso. I really
do appreciate you spending some time here with us today.
Looking forward to seeing you in Nashville on October fourth.
And before we let you go, is there anything you
want to say or promote before we let you go?
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Ww's the machine, right, they do all the promoter and
they do it better than anybody else. We're excited for Nashville.
One of the last times was there was Summer Slam weekend.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
It was insane. We spent the whole week out there.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Like.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I love the area, I love the crowd out there.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Funny that you even say tickets are so available, because
we costly have selling everything out, so if they're available,
they won't be available along to grab them, But yeah,
we're looking forward to it. Man, I have no idea
what I'll be doing that night, but whatever we give
you is gonna one hundred percent, and I hope it's
something spectacular. Maybe we even get motor City machine Guns
to make their debut that who knows, Probably not, it
(17:18):
might
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