10 Embarrassing Times Wrestlers Tried To Be Badass

3. Does Tommaso Ciampa Look Like A Freakin' Zebra To You?

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A recent entry into an unenviable canon, you'd be forgiven for missing it, since NXT is about as relevant as 205 Live these days.

Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher are currently embroiled in a very intense and gruff feud to determine who is the real manliest man in NXT. The Fight Pit will be great, but the storyline is not. It's a near-parody of an Alpha battle and it collapsed over that brink on this week's episode. In a sit-down interview promoted to build the match, whomever scripted it thought it would be a good and not funny idea to use animal-themed wordplay. Ciampa, looking to get an advantage, questioned the nature of Thatcher's injury.

"It's my knee, so target that," Thatcher didn't say because why the f*ck would he?

"Not to poke the bear" Ciampa said. Ciampa also claimed Thatcher takes liberties with his students, which has driven the grudge, but he stretcher-jobbed Jake Atlas not too long ago so who's the babyface here?

Thatcher disavowed his status as a bear and claimed he was a different animal in that Fight Pit - "and a lion doesn't have to explain what he's going to do to a zebra". Probably because they can't, being unable to talk and all.

Ciampa, pissed off, roared back: "Do I look like a freakin' zebra to you?!"

Firstly, "freakin'" was hilarious here because it's a word you say when you're not allowed to say "f*ckin'," which hardly put Ciampa over as a badass. And by asking a quite absurd rhetorical question, Ciampa invited a response, and if anything, with that mane of a beard, he looks more like a lion.

Let's hope he finds the courage to get out of the Fight Pit!

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!