Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano Discuss Being Underdogs, Appreciating Their NXT Status, More

WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano were recently interviewed by ESPN.com.

You can find some excerpts from the article below. The full interview can be found by clicking HERE.

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On them being underdogs:

“I feel like that’s kind of been why we gained such a following,” Gargano said. “People feel they can live through us. They’re kind of watching us scratch and claw and work our way up the ranks.”

On their appreciation of their current position in WWE NXT:

“It just doesn’t seem real yet,” Gargano said. “I don’t think we live in the moment like some people do. [But I think] we’re going to look back at how we got here and our story and everything that went into it, and we’re going to think it’s pretty cool.”

On working for WWE and the independents simultaneously:

“When we started with NXT, there were no issues as far as taking independent bookings,” Ciampa said. “Then we could kind of sense it was getting to that point, and then once we got confirmation [of going full-time in the WWE] but the news wasn’t made public, I think [for] both of us, that was the hardest part. It was four or five weeks of us knowing this is probably our last time in this town for this federation, for this group, but the fans didn’t know.

“A lot of times our opponents didn’t know. The promoters didn’t know. That was a tough four-to-six-week stretch, but once the announcement was made, it was just … fun. I enjoyed those last eight to 12 independent bookings, just took them and appreciated them for what they were.”