Tommaso Ciampa Comments On DIY Reunion On WWE Raw
Tommaso Ciampa is happy that WWE fans remember DIY.
The tag team between himself and Johnny Gargano became one of the most popular acts in the black and gold era of NXT, with both men achieving success as a pair and individually.
With their final match together representing Black and Gold at WarGames 2021, Gargano took some time away to help his pregnant wife while Ciampa ruled over NXT 2.0.
In the present day, both Gargano and Ciampa have found themselves as fixtures on Monday Night Raw but have barely interacted together. That all changed on October 2nd when Gargano came to the aid of his long-time friend to put an end to an Imperium beatdown. As the former tag team champions hit their signature moves, the crowd erupted at the reunion, much to the surprise of Ciampa.
Speaking on After The Bell, Tommaso Ciampa revealed that he was shocked that the crowd responded to his cries despite there being no prior hints of a reunion:
“Unfortunately, I know the feed cut a little bit before the finale, him and me meeting in the middle. The silver lining to it, to not only having him back, but the cool thing for both of us was DIY never really got going on the main roster. We have a couple of matches a couple of years back and it’s never been talked about. I came up, I was doing stuff with Miz and got a little rub with the US Title opportunity and then I went for surgery. By the time I’m gone, Johnny is coming up, he’s doing his own thing.
Together, there has been no tease for DIY. The fact that Johnny could come out and San Jose could chant ‘DIY’ and give the reaction they gave when we hugged, and after the show ended, I got on the mic quickly and when I shouted ‘WE ARE!’ to have the whole place saying ‘DIY!’ It was one of those moments where I was like, ‘Wait, we’ve done nothing to train you.’ In one night, we tried to build me as a viable contender and then we just brought Johnny up. No build, no expectation.
To have that crowd react and go ‘we know they are DIY.’ To me, that’s a big success because it was like, ‘that’s with nothing. That’s with no machine behind us.’ If we start to go now and they start to see us on a weekly basis together, whether it be backstage promos and interactions because we can have a lot of fun that way, or matches that get time, because that’s really what DIY was in NXT, just two dudes thrown together. It wasn’t like the rocket was strapped to us,”
Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano Reunion Delayed
The October 2nd reunion of DIY took place much later than first intended. Following Gargano and Ciampa standing tall on Monday night, a new report came to light that stated a reunion was originally scheduled as far back as June.
H/t to Fightful.