Ciampa: Rick Steiner was meant to be at NXT Halloween Havoc

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According to Tommaso Ciampa, Rick Steiner was supposed to be at NXT Halloween Havoc last month until the appearance fell through.

Halloween Havoc took place on October 26 and was headlined by Ciampa defeating Steiner’s son, Bron Breakker (Bronson Rechsteiner), to retain the NXT Championship. Ciampa told TalkSport that Steiner was supposed to be at the show until pulling out at the last minute.

“So, [Rick Steiner] was meant to be at Halloween Havoc,” Ciampa said. “He pulled out last minute. Maybe because I retained, but I won’t say that’s why [laughs]. I would love to be friends with him.

“I said to Bron ‘I don’t want to meet your dad, I want him to be my buddy.’ I want us to exchange numbers and whatever Rick Steiner does. He’s probably not a big phone guy, I don’t know [laughs]. But I just wanna be friends with him.”

The NXT Championship match at Halloween Havoc was Breakker’s first loss since debuting on the premiere of NXT 2.0 in September. He originally indicated that “Rex Steiner” was going to be his WWE in-ring name before being given the name Bron Breakker.

Breakker also had a brief interaction with horror series character Chucky at Halloween Havoc, a callback to his father taking part in a segment with Chucky on WCW Nitro in 1998.

Breakker quickly defeated Andre Chase on last week’s NXT and then cut a promo where he vowed to get another shot at the NXT Championship. Breakker said Ciampa is the man in NXT, but he’s going to win the NXT Championship from Ciampa or die trying.

Ciampa and Breakker are both currently part of WWE’s house show tour of the United Kingdom. Ciampa retained the NXT Championship against Breakker in London on Saturday. The four other tour stops Ciampa and Breakker are part of feature triple threat NXT Championship matches between Ciampa, Breakker, and Sami Zayn.