On June 19th, 2023, Tommaso Ciampa made his surprise return to the WWE Universe on RAW when he answered his former friend The Miz's open challenge and promptly kicked the Ohio kid's booty back to Parma, the town he was born in roughly nine miles away from Cleveland.

Finally, back in the ring after nine months away, Ciampa has immediately been thrust back into action against The Miz even more and has since branched out to other opponents like Bronson Reed and Shinsuke Nakamura, all the while hinting that a #DIY reunion could be in store at some point down the lime.

Speaking with Ryan Satin on Out of Character about what it felt like to be back where he belongs, in a professional wrestling week, Ciampa revealed that he was actually cleared to wrestle three weeks before he returned, but WWE opted to bring him back in Cleveland and give him a highlight reel victory that the “Blackheart” won't soon forget.

“I was given the green light maybe three weeks prior. Whenever we were in Albany. I flew out to Albany to have my last check-up with the medical stuff, and then it was a waiting game of creatively having something to do. I think it was three weeks. It was kind of nice too because it gave me three extra weeks of intense dieting. I came back in better shape than I envisioned. I think it was three weeks, though,” Tommaso Ciampa said via Fightful.

“Hardly ever do I get emotional prior to or in the moment. It's always sitting on an airplane reflecting after. The amount of times I've shed a tear on an airplane and people are like ‘what the hell is wrong?' especially looking the way I do, I probably look like a lunatic. Day of, I get so focused on business as usual. I forget who I was talking to about this a week ago, it was one of the women's wrestlers, but I can't think of who. They were asking, ‘Do you get nervous before you go out?' ‘This is exactly the demeanor you get until you walk out the curtain.' I'm so confident in it. Being relaxed is what helps me perform. That day, it was very much go with the flow. Things changed a little bit here and there throughout the day. I really have good chemistry with [The Miz], so that made that part easy. When you're out there with somebody who has been doing it for 20 years, and they are great and their timing is great, there is nothing to worry about, you just get to go have fun. That was the best part. Cleveland treated me good that night.”

While The Miz probably didn't appreciate how Ciampa came back to WWE, as he initially celebrated his “Mizion's” return before finding himself looking up at the lights as the referee tapped 1-2-3 a few minutes later, things couldn't have gone much better for the former NXT Champion, as he got to return and got the win in his former #DIY partner Johnny Gargano's hometown, something that looked like far from a guarantee months earlier, when the 38-year-old worried that his professional career might have been over.

Tommaso Ciampa reveals when he thought his career was over.

While it's great to see Tommaso Ciampa get back into the ring and perform at full strength once more, there was a time when the “Blackheart” worried that that wouldn't be the case, as after racking up a lengthy list of ailments, there was concern that his career was over.

“So much was wrong,” Ciampa told Satin via SE Scoops “I had bulging discs in my back. The SI joint was closed off. Hip labrum was torn to shreds. It was just a mess. The MRI had a lot of language in it that I didn't understand. So, the surgery and the rehab wasn't very fun, I'm not going to lie. It was pretty miserable at that point. When I went out to Columbia, I was a little like, ‘holy crap,' a little bit depressed, like I might have had my last match, and it was in whatever town on a live event – not how I envisioned it being.”

Though Ciampa isn't quite a household name just yet on the main roster, as he's only worked 12 matches on RAW since his time in development came to an end, losing the 18-year veteran before he could truly showcase his talents would have been a shame. Everything he puts on film from here on out is a bonus.