Photo: WWE

More than a month has passed since Tommaso Ciampa was last seen on WWE programming and it appears fans won’t see him again this year.

Ciampa will reportedly be sidelined until March 2018. According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, Ciampa suffered a torn ACL and underwent surgery. It was initially unknown how long he would be out of action. Many NXT fans have been anticipating Ciampa versus former DIY partner Johnny Gargano for TakeOver: Brooklyn III.

As a result of the rehab process, Ciampa could make a return for WrestleMania season, but he is likely to miss the remainder of 2017.

Speculation of Ciampa’s injury started a couple days before NXT TakeOver: Chicago in May when he had to be checked by medical staff following a match at a house show. On May 20, he took to Twitter to ease rumors he would be removed or replaced in the TakeOver: Chicago card.

Adversity introduces a man to himself…

We have come too far to stop now.#NXTTakeoverChicago #LadderMatch pic.twitter.com/YkunOseEgT

— Tommaso Ciampa (@ProjectCiampa) May 20, 2017

As we know, Ciampa and Gargano continued their TakeOver match against The Authors of Pain in an NXT Tag Team Championship Ladder Match. After the main event, Ciampa turned on Gargano.

"This wasn't our moment…this is my moment"
pic.twitter.com/Lp1t4xuDr8

— Tommaso Ciampa (@ProjectCiampa) May 21, 2017

On the May 31, NXT broadcast, Ciampa, with crutches, explained his reasons to betray Gargano.

In late June, Gargano made his NXT return during the show’s recent tapings, where he spoke about his future and commitment to compete at TakeOver: Brooklyn III. Gargano’s NXT return will air on the WWE Network in July.

The post Tommaso Ciampa Injury: ‘Psycho Killer’ Sidelined For All Of 2017 appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Photo: WWE

WWE NXT Headed To Pacific Northwest In July

Triple H announced some new WWE NXT tour dates on Tuesday via Twitter. The dates will bring WWE’s developmental brand to the Pacific northwest.

The first date of the tour is a stop in Vancouver on July 13. This is the first-ever NXT show in the city. That show will be followed by a July 14 event in Seattle, and the tour will conclude with a July 15 show in Portland. NXT has previously ran Seattle and Portland, both of which were very successful live gates.

The #NXTRoadTrip hits #NXTVancouver for the first time 7/13
& returns to #NXTSeattle 7/14
& #NXTPortland 7/15
Tickets on sale Fri. at 10am. pic.twitter.com/7m5Tt4MFGm

— Triple H (@TripleH) May 30, 2017

Ciampa Set For Surgery This Week

Tommaso Ciampa is currently in Birmingham, Alabama for surgery that will occur this week on what is reported to be a torn ACL. It’s unknown as of right now how long the injury will keep him out of action. Depending on the severity of the injury, this could be several months. As we had reported, Ciampa suffered some sort of injury at a house show in Kentucky May 18, just two days before NXT TakeOver Chicago. He then reportedly suffered another injury during the match in Chicago.

Ciampa of course concluded TakeOver with an amazing heel turn on Johnny Gargano. Ciampa’s transformation back into the “Psycho Killer” was one of the great moments in WWE this year. If you somehow missed it, check it out below.

The post WWE NXT Tour Dates Announced; Tommaso Ciampa Injury Update appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Photo: WWE

Update On Tommaso Ciampa Injury, Availability For TakeOver Chicago

As TopRopePress.com reported on last night, Tommaso Ciampa suffered some sort of leg injury at the NXT live event in Highland Heights, Kentucky. The match, which featured DIY taking on Sanity, was stopped after the referee threw up the “X” with his arms. Ciampa limped to the back, visibly upset over what had happened.

Triple H provided a bit of an update during today’s NXT conference call. He said Ciampa has said he just turned his ankle and is good to go for TakeOver Chicago tomorrow night in their NXT Tag Team Championship ladder match against the Authors of Pain. It was later revealed that an x-ray showed it was just a severe sprain of his ankle with nothing broken. In the end, though, Triple H said that the medical team will make the call. He says they are all keeping a positive mindset on how this will all turn out.

“He turned his ankle somewhere. As a precaution everything shut down, it stopped, he got out of there. He went for an X-ray last night, and there’s no break or fracture. He’s got an ankle sprain. When I texted with him this morning, he was feeling better and was up moving around and felt like he was not going to have an issue with it. It was not really bothering him, it was not really as bad as they thought it was.”

Triple H NXT Media Call Highlights

Speaking of the NXT conference call, Triple H also addressed the upcoming women’s tournament. He talked about how it will be harder to put together a tournament, just because of the fact that there are less female competitors worldwide. He wants the roster to be full of women from all over the globe, so he mentioned that many female competitors (from the U.S.) that probably should be on the show might not make it due to them trying to make it global in nature.

Triple H alluded to the fact that the women’s tournament is a “passion project” of his that he has been working on for quite a while. He said that they have/will reach out to women’s wrestlers from the past, not necessarily to compete, but to make an appearance during the tournament.

Other news worthy items from the conference call:

• Triple H was asked about Hideo Itami. It was noted this will be his biggest match since coming to NXT from Japan. Triple H was asked about Itami’s future if this doesn’t go over well. He said he likes to be positive and thinks Itami will rise to the occasion after dealing with so many injury setbacks. He said that if it doesn’t work out, they’ll have to see where Itami wants to take his career moving forward.
• When asked if this event is a sign there will be more Takeover events moving forward, Hunter said this was just a perfect storm scheduling wise because he wanted to get the brand to Chicago. He didn’t say there would be more shows moving forward as far as Takeovers go.
• He complimented both Drew Galloway and Jinder Mahal as guys who have come back, reinvented themselves, and had success.
• Triple H acknowledged managing the brand can be hard when wrestlers get called up, gutting the roster in the process. He also acknowledged people from behind the scenes (like writer Ryan Ward) get called up too, making things difficult. In the end, though, they are a development territory and have to roll with it and continue to reinvent themselves.
• Triple H talked about the upside of Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne and bringing the UK title to the U.S.
• Jim Ross’ return was discussed, with Hunter really putting over the fact that Ross will return tomorrow. He sounds very excited to have him involved with WWE and calling matches again.
• A question was asked about Roderick Strong and how he is progressing. Triple H acknowledged what a great worker he is, but he also said they are continuing to develop him as a personality and his ability to connect with the people is something being worked on.
• Triple H closed when asked about expansion. He was asked what market is next after the U.K. He didn’t give a specific answer but alluded to India being a goal.

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