Where Does Tommaso Ciampa Go From Here?

Six minutes and ten seconds. Three hundred and seventy seconds was all it took for Karrion Kross to destroy former NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, gaining a stoppage victory with the Kross Jacket.

Ciampa has been exclusively involved with NXT since 2017, having previously appeared for the two years prior, and has become a respected member of the NXT roster. Whether through his battles against The Revival and The Authors Of Pain in the tag team alongside his beloved partner Johnny Gargano, through his dastardly betrayal and war with the aforementioned Gargano, to his classic reign as NXT Champion, he has done it all. Even though his reign as NXT Champion was disastrously cut short at 238 days due to neck injury, it still gained its place as a tremendous representation of the best of the brand. The belief was that Ciampa would return from injury and win back his championship, as well as complete his feud with Gargano, and while the latter has been achieved, the former looks a lot less likely now.

With NXT now being signed to weekly shows on cable network USA, it’s no longer considered a developmental brand, but instead a global brand of its own. The elevation of the NXT brand to such a level, in essence the role that ECW was meant to offer, is due to the tremendous work of captivating stories culminating in high-quality wrestling matches. As NXT Champion, Ciampa was a proud representative of this quality, and had previously admitted his reluctance to moving to Raw or SmackDown, believing NXT suited his personal and professional wants. And for a long time, people saw no reason to question him staying, until his match against Kross.

In the days of territories in wrestling, it was quite common for wrestlers to move quite frequently, which led to the golden rule that a wrestler was to always leave “on his back”, putting over an opponent to allow the territory to flourish once the original wrestler left. This has seemingly been reintroduced on the NXT brand, a calculated move to allow the brand to flourish regardless of when stars left. The practice was first established when Bo Dallas stayed on after dropping the NXT Championship to Neville, to also put over stars such as Sami Zayn and Tyson Kidd, allowing a flourishing main event scene for NXT just in time for them to start featuring on the WWE Network. Over the years, Neville helped put over Finn Balor twice before being promoted, Zayn returned from injury to put over the debuting Shinsuke Nakamura, and Nakamura put Bobby Roode over twice before leaving as well.

With Gargano, Velveteen Dream and Ciampa all losing in their respective NXT TakeOver: In Your House matches, the timing seems perfect for possibly all three to move across from NXT to either Raw or SmackDown. The most likely will be Ciampa, as Dream has a storyline set up with Cole over his inability to challenge for the NXT Championship, and Gargano has just recently turned heel, alongside his real life partner Candice LeRae. In comparison, Ciampa isn’t likely to challenge for the North American or Tag Team Championships, his feud with Gargano is complete, and Adam Cole is currently leading the brand as NXT Champion, so Ciampa is left with an unfamiliar position of being almost unneeded. The question really becomes: will he move to Raw or SmackDown?

When Ciampa was brought up to the then-main rosters in February 2019, he appeared once on both Raw and SmackDown, as Vince McMahon responded to issues with ratings at the time in the lead-up to WrestleMania. In an attempt to boost the disappointing ratings, McMahon looked to the NXT roster to utilise the star power of Ciampa, Gargano, Aleister Black and Ricochet. However, with the new $205 million per year deal between SmackDownand Fox TV, the pressure for strong consistent ratings has become vital to the company, especially as the ratings have continued to drop. If we take into account the successful following Ciampa has gained over the last few years, it’s likely that SmackDown will be chosen as his new home, especially considering the range of superstars that he could face on the brand. Even though he is unlikely to be thrown straight into the main event scene alongside current Universal Champion Braun Strowman and his rival ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt, Ciampa could be suited for the current Intercontinental Championship division.

The current belief is that the Intercontinental Championship tournament final, featuring AJ Styles taking on Daniel Bryan, could actually feature on the final episode of SmackDown prior to the upcoming WWE Backlash event. This may seem a strange decision, but if implemented, this could lead to the debut of Matt Riddle to challenge the winner for a match at Backlash itself. With the current inclusion of Bryan, Styles, possibly Riddle, Drew Gulak, Cesaro, Nakamura and Sami Zayn when he returns, there is a strong, growing division on the SmackDown brand, with several talents maybe able to get involved in the Universal Championship scene as well. If Ciampa was to debut and become involved, the SmackDown roster would be star studded, suitable to its position as the dominant and ‘more important’ brand, akin to the 2010s when the then-dominant brand, Raw, seemed overpowered in comparison to SmackDown.

Bringing both Riddle and Ciampa to the SmackDown roster could bring a fan following to help increase the viewership of the SmackDown brand, especially as both are considered stars. They would also offer a shot in the arm for a brand that sometimes seems tired, with both Ciampa and Riddle renowned for their charisma, great matches, and tremendous creativity, elements that could be of great benefit to SmackDown. Just imagine the possibility of getting to see matches featuring Ciampa and Styles, Bryan, Cesaro, Gulak, etc? This could offer an entire variety of untapped dream matches, let alone mixing Riddle in as well.

During the first brand split in the early 2000s, there was the beloved ‘SmackDown Six’, featuring Edge, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, who revitalised the brand with their unique style of passion and ability. A modern interpretation with names such as Styles, Bryan, Gulak, Cesaro, Riddle and Ciampa, to help push the brand to a higher level? It’s what dreams are made of.