The Most Devastating Injury to Wrestling Hopes and Dreams: Tommaso Ciampa getting neck surgery

Matthew Klink (@klinkmatt)

March 6, 2019

Wrestling Observer Radio has reported and gotten confirmation that NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa will be getting neck surgery.

Looking back at how amazing the last two years have been this hurts so much. The Brothers of Discussion have focused many an hour discussing, fantasy booking, and drooling over the awesomeness that is Tommaso Ciampa.

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano

In one of the greatest feuds and pro wrestling stories, Ciampa had been fighting with an alongside his friend Johnny Gargano. With a narrative that has spanned multiple years and multiple wrestling tragedies, we couldn't possibly imagine where this story would end up.

Even as a tag team (DIY), Ciampa and Gargano fought through the thickest mud and gunk to get to the top. After Ciampa's injury (while Gargano and Ciampa were at the height of heights in the Tag Division) Gargano went on to fight for the NXT Championship.

Then, in Ciampa's triumphant return, we saw the beginning of a rivalry we'll be talking about for years and explaining (despite nobody asking) why it is the greatest feud of all-time.

The two superstars fought through a few different pay-per-views, with Gargano beginning to lose who he was — transforming from "Johnny Wrestling" to "Johnny Badass." The story provided a fantastic look at whether getting revenge is worth it. Is it worth it to lose who you are, neglect your loved ones, and become a hated figure to get over your opponent?

Gargano and Ciampa make it to RAW and SmackDown

More recently we saw Ciampa and Gargano make it to the main roster and defeat the Tag Champions as an evil, reunited version of DIY. Last week, NXT even announced DIY as entrants into the "Dusty Rhodes Classic" Tag Team Tourney. It caused my brother and I to go into a frenzy of fantasy booking excitement!

These two journeymen turned WWE Superstars were poised to tell the most excellent story we've probably ever seen in pro wrestling.

We needed to see this story finish with Gargano getting over on Ciampa. We needed to see good triumph over evil. We needed to see Gargano set the trap and become the NXT Champion!

We still will, but it’s definitely on hold for now.

NXT Tonight and Moving Forward

While we head into tonight's episode of NXT, I wonder if we'll get any explanation. NXT has the luxury of being pre-recorded, so probably not. We might not see anything until WrestleMania week since they have that many shows in the can.

Regardless, this is sad. And heartbreaking. To think about what could have been. Tommaso Ciampa and the drama that follows him has been unforgivably amazing to watch. I trust that when he's ready to come back, the story will be just as grand and Gargano and Ciampa will FINALLY be able to show whether this world is good or evil.

What can we hope for?

I think we’ll have to be patient here and wait to hear more details about the injury and the surgery. Did Ciampa wait to record episodes of NXT before getting the surgery? If that’s the truth, I think we can hope for a quick recovery. Of course, we can’t forget that this is a neck surgery for Tommaso Ciampa, but there’s hope in waiting to film NXT before getting the surgery.

For this to be true, we also have to assume the injury happened when DIY made their SmackDown Live debut a couple of weeks ago.

That being said, maybe DIY’s story is ready to be told in the coming weeks. And one thing the Brothers of Discussion have already predicted, maybe the feud was never supposed to end at the WrestleMania NXT TakeOver. Maybe it was supposed to end at NXT TakeOver Chicago? Whenever that happens.

I think we all knew that Gargano was going to turn his gaze to Ciampa’s NXT Title eventually, so maybe we’ll see that story play out over the next five episodes of NXT. Maybe not. But I think we can grasp onto this theory that waiting to film NXT before having the surgery is good news.

Enjoy the article? Every weekend the Brothers of Discussion offer more thoughts and opinions through the podcast! Listen, Subscribe and Review the Podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes!