Tommaso Ciampa is clearly a big fan of Harley Race.
The former NXT Champion worked for Race early in his career. He also paid tribute to the legend when he died, dressing like Race during a match on Raw to honor the legend.
Tommaso Ciampa spoke with MuscleManMalcolm about his history with Harley Race. Ciampa called Race “a man’s man”, and echoed how important respect was to the former NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion.
“Harley [Race] was just a man’s man. He hit me up when I was about 22. That’s an instrumental time for you as you’re developing and trying to figure out who you are as a man. He was honest. He had integrity. I remember the first time I did a big show for him, where I really performed well. I had to do double duty, because we had an injury, and he paid me extra for that, which for promoters is not a thing. He was just one of those guys. He brought us to his house for Thanksgiving one time. I think he very much was, if you treat him well, show respect, that’s what you get back. Respect was a big thing for Harley.”
Tommaso Ciampa On Being Muhammad Hassan’s Lawyer
Tommaso Ciampa was a guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. He spoke about how he came to portray Muhammad Hassan’s Lawyer in the WWE in 2005, years before he signed tot he company.
“Similar to being in the right place with Chaotic, they called up the promoter at the time, Jamie, and they said hey, we need — which is a weird suggestion from WWE for what we need — but we need guys under six foot tall, who look like they could be like fresh out of law school,” Tommaso Ciampa said. “So I forget how they worded it, but because it was for Hassan and Daivari, like they wanted you to have a certain look, I think their wording was.
“So three of us got sent. It was me, this kid Matt Logan, and this kid Chase. I want to say maybe I’m like at that time six months older than Matt and younger than Chase. But we didn’t have anyone who was like 20, which is just so weird now thinking about wrestling. But we didn’t have anyone who was 26-30. It was all kids, and we all went there.
“I borrowed my brother’s suit because I didn’t have one, and the three of us are in catering. And John Laurinaitis comes in, he just like looks at us, and he’s like, Yeah, I think he’s gonna do, and that was the end of that. You’re like, Okay, I didn’t know exactly what we’re there for. And then all of a sudden, like it was the whirlwind of a day.
