Former WWE star Giovanni Vinci discussed various topics on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, including why he did not move to the main roster with GUNTHER and Ludwig Kaiser.
Vinci said, “Well, that all came a little bit unexpected, because we were that group in NXT, where it was the three of us. When the call-up happened, they got called up. I didn’t. So that was a bit of a mix-up. That was also a bit of a like, what’s going on here. We started at the same time, Walter came over after that, but they went up there said, you guys, do your thing. I’ll do my thing in NXT, it will all workout. But it was a little bit like, like, an avalanche of emotions at the time, because you don’t know what’s going on here. Am I not going anywhere? What’s happening? Like, do I have to move back or whatever?”
On feeling like he was being left behind:
“A little bit. Yeah, yeah, but I didn’t really know why, because we did everything together all the time. Everything went well with the matches and all that. But after three days, I had a great talk with Shawn. He’s like, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna figure it out.’ He’s the man. Matt Bloom as well. They were both great. And I remember three days after that, I got myself three burgers. I’m like, I’m gonna eat these, and tomorrow we go to work, show them. That’s when we came up with that character, that Giovanni Vinci character, which I had a ton of fun with. I think I did more in those three months in NXT that I had done in five, six years prior to NXT. Did promos every week, had great matches, did commentary. So that was great. And then I heard rumors about me getting called up. But you know, in wrestling, you never get too excited until it actually happens, because nothing’s ever set in stone. I mean, the debut was great, in front of 70,000 people at Clash at the Castle.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
