Tommaso Ciampa had made a few appearances for WWE before he became an NXT star and one of them included coming face to face with the Undertaker during a SmackDown episode in 2005.
During a recent interview with State of Combat podcast, the former NXT Champion talked about a number of things and also recalled his experience of being in the ring with the Dead Man at the age of 20.
Ciampa first revealed that he first rehearsed the promo he had to cut in front of everybody and then he cut the promo once again for Vince McMahon in his office. He then went on to say that looking back at the moment makes him realize how crazy it was:
“Looking back now, it’s like I see how big of a deal it was and how crazy it was to have that one-on-one time with everybody as a 20-year-old kid on the independents. It was wild. Everyone treated me incredibly well. I remember that they didn’t like the suit that I had on so they went and bought me a suit and let me keep it.”
The NXT star continued by saying that being in the ring with the Undertaker was one of the biggest highlights of his career and being backstage with Vince McMahon and others had a big impact on his career.
