Tommaso Ciampa - The Hero We Deserve

[Funker]

Ciampa is now the longest reigning NXT Champ since Balor in 2015/16

[comfortablynumb]

Keep it going. I love how he holds ‘Goldie’ when walking to the ring.

[Heisenberg]

Ciampa will be out for the foreseeable future while he has neck surgery.

[Oliver]

Aw man, that fucking sucks. I hope Ciampa can come back from this, but selfishly I'm pissed because I thought we were gearing up for a Mania weekend Ciampa vs Gargano bout which would have been off the charts.

I assume he's going to drop the title now - maybe they'll throw the script out of the window and do a one night tournament on Mania weekend or something? It certainly seems like this neck issue was something Ciampa was dealing with and they were trying to get him through Mania weekend to drop the title to Johnny, but I would have thought there are plenty of other directions they could take it in.

I think I'd give Adam Cole a title run.

[mizfan]

I know people think he's charismatic, but Ciampa to Cole seems like such a big step down to me...

Really sad for Ciampa, he's been a highlight to me every time I've seen him even above Gargano. I hope he can come back strong with some good years left, though sounds like it's pretty serious and I know he's been pretty beat up for a while now.

Is it too soon to elevate Keith Lee to the title? I'm feeling the urge to see the new batch of guys ascend quickly as the old ones start cycling up.

[Powder]

What kid of neck injury did he have? And what match did he sustain it in?

[Team Farrell]

Seems like it's just wear and tear bullshit. According to online reports, he didn't have an numbness or weakness, but a constant burning pain. My guess is caused by pressure on the disc, but who knows.

[LK3185]

Apperently its some sort of neck fusion to remove a disc. Which he can recover from if its done properly.

[Team Farrell]

Uh oh, anterior cervical fusion. That's the Kurt Angle surgery, isn't it? The one that wasn't as effective but got him back sooner?

[Oliver]

I think the cervical fusion was what was recommended for Angle (in 2002/03 time, maybe?) but he subsequent elected to not have the fusion and just remove bone spurs and bits of the discs, and that reduced his recover time from 12 months to 3 months, or something like that. Think that was post-Mania XIX?

[Heisenberg]

Is it not the same as Edge, Austin and Paige?

[LK3185]

No its not, the issue they have is more direct with the spine I believe.

[Team Farrell]

Austin, Edge and Benoit had fusion surgeries. Cena and Angle (I was wrong on him) had surgeries to relieve pressure on the spinal nerves caused by their disc injuries. I'm not sure what Paige did.

So, this appears to be more along the lines of Austin, Edge and Benoit. This is a potentially career shortening surgery, which is really too bad for a guy who's only 33.

[LK3185]

I think this is simliar to Austin but not quite, they are removing disc while fusing the spine.

Some think he'll be back in six months

Its not that surprising to me given his injury history.

[Team Farrell]

I just hope that he takes the time he needs and doesn't try to rush back. Austin had his surgery at the end of 99, was back six months later and only got another three years out of his body from that point. Maybe if would have been more if he hadn't walked out in 2002...but maybe it would have been less! Edge took the full year to recover, but even he had the wheels start falling off by the mid-'00s. His subsequent injuries weren't to the neck, but don't think that a cervical disc injury wasn't what caused the deterioration. And ultimately it was the neck that ended his career in his mid 30s.

I hope Ciampa takes his time, and I hope that he can get some more big money making years out of his body before having to hang them up. I want the guy to end his career a millionaire.

As a bit of a personal anecdote, I've started really pushing guys on what they expect out of the business. I have some close friends who were really a generation ahead of me in the business, and got out sporadically over the last decade, whose bodies are falling apart now. So now I lay their situation out very frankly to new people breaking in, and even younger guys who have been around for a while. What do you expect out of wrestling? If you don't expect to make a living, or genuinely believe that you can, why are you taking all of these bumps? Because my friends who were making a lot more money than you are, are having surgeries and discovering old poorly healed injuries -- that would probably have sidelined most people -- that they never even knew they had. These are dudes in their mid 40s having trouble playing with their kids.

When folks see me rail on "this shit has gotten too dangerous" and think that I'm just having Jim Cornette moments, I'm not. I see all the time the realities of "life after wrestling" and the results of these super high neck and shoulder and head bumps that a lot of folks don't because once an indy guy is out of the business he's off the radar. If Taiji Ishimori calls it quits tomorrow, is the average NJPW fan going to follow his life after wrestling, or do they move on to the next guy? Will people see his body break down over the next decade because of the risks he took in the ring?