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This is real
Photo Credit/Manipulation: WWE.com |
Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa made headlines first when their upcoming NXT appearance was leaked and then again this past Wednesday when they appeared in a backstage vignette hyping said match.When Rhyno started showing up on a regular basis while continuing his indie bookings and Samoa Joe started hyping that the way business was being done was going to change (even if he signed an exclusive deal afterwards because WWE hates Ring of Honor right now), many wondered if NXT would let the floodgates open and have guest stars coming in from the indies on a regular basis. It's unclear whether Gargano and Ciampa are heralding the beginning of such a revolution, especially since they're both rumored to be
signing developmental deals anyway, but WWE is at least embracing their current status as indie free agents, as shown in
this interview.
The interview is really nothing to write home about. It's mostly boilerplate answers about the indies and projecting obsequious desires towards going to WWE/NXT. But it's not necessarily about the content of the interview as it is a sign of the times changing, at least at the NXT level. Ciampa and Gargano weren't given hastily-created names from the NXT Generator, and their histories aren't being shied away from too badly. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens were described as rivals who faced each other "around the world," but with Gargano and Ciampa, at least that pool is narrowed down to "the indies."
