Tommaso Ciampa returns, sets sights on NXT title
Nearly seven months after having neck surgery, Tommaso Ciampa returned on tonight’s NXT.
The episode ended with Ciampa confronting NXT Champion Adam Cole on the stage. Ciampa looked at Cole’s title and went face-to-face with him as the show went off the air.
Ciampa was forced to relinquish the NXT Championship after undergoing anterior cervical fusion surgery this March. Johnny Gargano defeated Cole to win the vacant title at NXT TakeOver: New York in April, but Cole then won the title from Gargano at June’s TakeOver XXV.
Ciampa had recently been teasing a return, including tweeting a hype video at Cole earlier today.
Cole retained the NXT Championship against Matt Riddle earlier on tonight’s NXT episode. After the match, he was confronted by the returning Finn Balor. Balor declared that: “As of now, Finn Balor is NXT.”
Cole’s Undisputed Era stablemates Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish retained their NXT Tag Team titles against The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) in the main event of tonight’s show. O’Reilly, Fish & Roderick Strong were celebrating in the ring and Cole was celebrating on the stage when Ciampa appeared.
