Since returning from neck surgery, NXT Superstar Tommaso Ciampa has quickly re-established himself on WWE’s black-and-gold brand, NXT. Speaking with Yahoo!, Ciampa addressed his road to recovery post-neck surgery as well as his vision for NXT’s future.

“When you have the surgery, the biggest question mark is how quickly are you going to get strength and feeling back in your arms and hands,” Ciampa explained.

“For me, the second I woke up, it was like snapping your fingers. I could open and close my hand again, strength wasn’t at 100 percent, but movement, mobility, control, all of that was there. Feeling and sensation came back immediately, which was a very good sign. [Any uncertainty I had] was more hesitation going into the procedure, me hoping that it worked as well as we thought it would since we caught it early. As soon as I woke up and all of those boxes were checked, there wasn’t much doubt about me returning.”

Looking to his home brand, NXT, Ciampa shared that he isn’t surprised at how well they are doing against RAW and SmackDown.

“We are equal, NXT is legit,” he stated. “I think some people knew that but now we’re reaching a bigger audience. I joked about it when we got the USA deal, that I couldn’t wait until 5 or 10 years down the road when it’s WrestleMania weekend and NXT is drawing the bigger house. I stand by that. You give us 5 to 10 years on TV, every week on USA, I think NXT is going to become in everyone’s eyes the No. 1 brand in professional wrestling."

Ciampa goes to war this Saturday at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. He is joined by Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic and an announced partner against the team of the Undisputed Era in a WarGames matchup.