Tommaso Ciampa Talks Excitement About #DIY Tag Team On WWE Raw
The crowd reaction was a “huge success” according to Tommaso Ciampa as San Jose fans chanted ‘DIY’ after Johnny Gargano helped his former tag-team partner.
Gargano and Ciampa spent two years as a tag team during their time in NXT, first being placed together during the 2015 Dusty Rhodes Classic.
The pair became NXT Tag Team Champions after defeating FTR, then working as The Revival, at NXT Takeover: Toronto in November 2016.
Ciampa ruptured his ACL in 2017 which left Gargano to focus on a singles career. NXT fans were left shocked when Ciampa returned and attacked his former partner, setting up a brutal feud.
Now that both Superstars are signed to the Raw brand, fans had expected to see the battle continue but instead reacted loudly after Gargano joined forces with Ciampa as Raw went off the air.
Ciampa was a guest on the After The Bell podcast, discussing his journey to the main event of Raw and the reaction as fans embraced the reunion of ‘DIY’.
During the interview, the Two-Time NXT Champion expressed his delight at the crowd reaction after Johnny Gargano came to the aid of his former partner, who was on the receiving end of a beating at the hands of Imperium.
“I came up, I was doing stuff with the Miz and I got that little bit of a rub with the US Title opportunity and then I had to go away for surgery. By the time I’m gone Johnny’s coming up, he’s doing his own thing.
So together, there’s been no tease for DIY. So the fact that Johnny could come out and San Jose could be chanting ‘DIY’ and give the reaction that they gave when we hugged.”
“To have that whole place saying, ‘DIY,’ it was one of those moments I was like, ‘Wait, we’ve done nothing to train you people.’
In one night, we tried to build me as a viable contender [for the Intercontinental Championship] and we just brought Johnny up. No build, no expectation. So to have that crowd react and go, ‘Oh, we know that they’re called DIY,’ that to me was a big success. Because that was like, ‘Shoot, that’s with nothing. That’s with no machine behind us. That’s with no anything.
We start to go now and they start to see us on a weekly basis, together, whether that be backstage promos and interactions because we can have a lot of fun that way, or we have some matches where we have some time because that’s what DIY was in NXT.”
Tommaso Ciampa Wants Friends Versus Friends Dream Match
After the success of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn reuniting to dethrone The Uso’s at WrestleMania 39 and becoming Undisputed Tag Team Champions, Tommaso Ciampa wants to team up with his friend to take on the Canadian pair.
During his appearance on After The Bell, Ciampa shared how taking on Owens and Zayn would be a “dream match” as all four participants were brought up by the same style of wrestling.
“KO and Sami Zayn is obviously a dream match that I see a lot, brought up on the internet.”
With Gargano helping Ciampa fight off Imperium, it is expected that ‘DIY’ will now have their first tag match since NXT against the powerful Europeans.
Should ‘DIY’ succeed an opportunity to move up the tag team rankings by defeating Owens and Zayn could be a dream come true for the Killer Kowalski trained Superstar.
H/t to 411Mania