Tommaso Ciampa's WWE Raw Return Was Almost MUCH Bigger

Tommaso Ciampa returned to WWE television for the first time in nine months this Monday past, defeating former ally The Miz in around four minutes - but the comeback was almost a lot bigger.

Fightful Select reports that WWE's original Raw plans had Ciampa answering Seth Rollins' World Heavyweight Championship open challenge. Their match was "set to get a ton of time," though the promotion ended up changing things several times over the weekend, right up until a few hours before Raw hit the airwaves.

Rollins ended up opening Raw, seemingly for the open challenge, though Finn Balor jumped him on the ramp, beat him down at ringside, and rendered the champion unable to compete. The Miz then hit the ring claiming he had planned on answering the challenge. This preceded Ciampa's comeback, with Tommaso besting the man he'd been aligned with on Raw prior to his injury-enforced absence.

Fightful states that WWE had a non-finish in mind for Rollins vs. Ciampa - and the people "around the match" were "clearly frustrated by the change."

A DIY reunion for Ciampa and former partner Johnny Gargano has been rumoured for Raw. Gargano was at this week's show, though he didn't feature, despite the broadcast taking place in his Cleveland, OH hometown.

Vince McMahon is understood to have made myriad changes to this week's Raw. The Executive Chairman was behind Ciampa vs. Miz getting cancelled, despite the people involved in the bout wanting it to go ahead.