According to Ciampa, Rick Steiner was supposed to be at NXT Halloween Havoc.
WWE NXT 2.0 is several weeks removed from their Halloween Havoc special. That show was main evented by Tommaso Ciampa and Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship. Ciampa was the only champion who retained his title that night.
Breakker and Ciampa shared the ring with one another throughout WWE’s recent U.K. tour. He chatted with talkSPORT while overseas and shared that former two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion Rick Steiner was supposed to be at Halloween Havoc. Ciampa added that Steiner pulled out last minute and jokingly said it was because he retained the title.
So, he was meant to be at Halloween Havoc. He pulled out last minute. Maybe because I retained, but I won’t say that’s why [laughs]. I would love to be friends with him. I said to Bron, ‘I don’t want to meet your dad, I want him to be my buddy.’ I want us to exchange numbers and whatever Rick Steiner does. He’s probably not a big phone guy, I don’t know [laughs]. But I just wanna be friends with him.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Ciampa reflected on the conclusion of his feud with Johnny Gargano which was a cinematic-style match. Ciampa admitted that it was disheartening and things would have ended perfectly had they had their final match at TakeOver: New York as planned.
It was disheartening. I’ll be honest, a lot of our feud, I can’t think of something that’s had more obstacles than that, between Aleister [Black] getting injured and my injury. It would have been perfect if we’d gone to TakeOver New York like we were supposed to. So it hurts a little sometimes because I know it’s tarnished in some people’s minds, but I know how much we put into it and that’s what hurts. We know the passion that went into that work, so yeah, it’s a bummer that we didn’t get to finish it the way we imagined.
On the latest NXT 2.0, Breakker alerted Ciampa that he is still coming for the NXT Championship. To get a recap of that show, click here.
