Tommaso Ciampa on Him Urging Fans To Show Up For The Butcher For AEW’s Tribute To Butcher 9/12 Collision Show, How His AEW Entrance Has Won Over His Daughter, & Wrestling Mark Briscoe In AEW Brought Back ‘A Lot Of Memories’

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured Tommaso Ciampa as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ciampa’s thoughts about him wanting the wrestling community to show up for AEW’s upcoming Collision show on September that will be in tribute to the late “The Butcher” Andy Williams.

“This is a special one for the entire company too. We lost The Butcher very tragically this week. We just came off Rebel Heart. It was very emotional Wednesday. It’s gonna be extremely emotional Saturday. Just asking the fans to come out, share your love, share your memories, just be loud and support not just me, but the whole crew. Everyone’s kind of going through it right now. So this is one of them times where you want the whole wrestling community to do what they do best. Be a family. Show up for each other, because that’s what The Butcher would have wanted. That’s what Rebel wants. It’s been an emotional week for everybody, so show up, show love. We’ll see you in Springfield.”

Ciampa also gave his thoughts about how his entrance presentation in AEW has managed to win over his daughter.

“It’s just hard to win over for me. I will say I’ve won her over significantly more in the last six to eight months since joining AEW. Because she’s at that age, right? She’s seven, she’s turning eight this month. Presentation is the most important thing when you are a child. I know for me as a kid, the Hulk Hogans, the Ultimate Warriors, the Macho Mans, people who had cool music, cool gear, and cool entrances – they were the coolest wrestlers. So my entrance is something that I think I’ve won her over. Because prior to that, it was always just very challenging. She’s got her favorites and I don’t know if I ever made the list, but now I think I’m at least in the top five. So that’s pretty good.”

Ciampa also gave his thoughts about him sharing the ring with Mark Briscoe for his first match in AEW.

“Sharing the ring with Mark Briscoe right out the gate and then continuing that with the no holds barred match with him – that’s a dude that I shared the ring with a good 15 or so years ago. This is a fun traveling circus where you can be brothers and family with a group. Then as you disperse, you just kind of lose touch with one another. But every time you see each other, you just kind of pick up right where you left off. That’s kind of how it was with Mark and how it’s always been with the Briscoe family. So that was one of the moments where just being out there with him and doing it with him again, it just brought back a lot of memories. It’s always a good time when you’re around the Briscoes.”

Ciampa also gave his thoughts about if their match in AEW reminded him of the old days of his time with Briscoe in wrestling.

“My first ever appearance with AEW was just a face-to-face with Mark. I kissed him on the cheek as I walked out. Just the energy that he gives, and that good old toothless smile of his… he’s got an infectious, contagious passion for pro wrestling for life in general that the second I saw him it was a big warm hug. He’s a guy who just loves life. He loves wrestling. So just being around him, his energy is always infectious. It’s just a total blast to be out there with him. Then that music – when you hear that music, oh my gosh. There’s an energy in the crowd. Every time he walks out, it’s just unbelievable.”

Ciampa also gave his thoughts about a conversation he had with Briscoe before their first match against each other in AEW.

“I said it to him prior to us actually locking up the first time. I just said, ‘This is going to be fun.’ Cause this is just two completely different wrestlers getting in the ring for the first time ever. We had shared the ring in ROH, but that was like what? 2012 maybe. So I know how much I’ve grown as a performer. I can only fathom how much he’s grown. We’ve gone totally different paths. So it was interesting to feel that chemistry come together so quickly. We both made it a point. I’m not really a practice, rehearsal type guy. I like to just get in there and just kind of do it. I feel like that’s the most organic thing that you can experience with a live crowd is that you’re just going out there, just doing the art form and doing it. Everyone’s just kind of in it together for the first time. It was interesting just how quickly we clicked and even more so in the hardcore match. I felt like we were sharing the same mind. It’s totally in sync. It was just an awesome experience.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3