AEW star Tommaso Ciampa appeared on the Battleground podcast, where he discussed various topics, including his iconic silent entrance from NXT Takeover: New Orleans, when he emerged without any music and knew it would resonate with the audience.
Ciampa said, “I don’t think I did know. I wanted to take the risk, that was for sure. And I’m happy it paid off the way it did. It could have went the other way, that’s for certain. And I had that thought in my head of, ‘You know, it might go one way; it might go the other.’ But I didn’t understand at the time that it was going to be this memorable entrance that eight years later I’m kind of asked about constantly. And that’s a good thing; that’s not a bad thing.”
On wanting to recreate it as a babyface:
“It’s one of those things I would love to recreate one day with the tides flipped. I’d love to recreate that as a babyface one day, because I think there’s a cool element there to be had. But yeah, it was just one of those things where you just took a risk and swing for the fence, and hope for the best. And it certainly paid off.”
On the crowd being right for it:
“And that was the right crowd. That was a crowd with fans from all over the world who travel in for such a big weekend, with it being — it was Takeover New Orleans, attached to WrestleMania. That’s the right crowd to do that in front of. There’s some crowds you don’t want to take those risks in front of, but that’s the right crowd to do it in front of.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
