Tommaso Ciampa plans to stay in AEW for the rest of his career.
Days after his WWE contract expired, on the January 28th edition of Dynamite, Tommaso Ciampa made his shock AEW debut. On the show, the Psycho Killer answered Mark Briscoe’s open challenge for the TNT Championship. Ciampa’s week ended spectacularly when he defeated Briscoe on Collision, winning the gold in his first match for his new promotion.
In a new interview with Yahoo! Sports, Ciampa spoke of his respect for what AEW has achieved since it officially launched in 2019.
“All Elite Wrestling is still in [its] infancy, 6 years old, and it was built by a bunch of guys that I have the utmost respect for. And what it’s done for professional wrestling, I don’t think people give it the credit for. I think 20 years from now, people are going to look back and start to understand it. So for me to become a part of that team, I want that to become my family away from home. I want to wave that flag.”
Now that he’s made his mark, Ciampa has no intentions of leaving the promotion, making clear it’s where he plans on spending the last decade of his career.
“I want to be a part of that movement, and I’m willing to work my way through that. I told them the first time we had a discussion [in late January], I ain’t here for a cup of coffee and I ain’t going anywhere. This is it, man. Final stop. We’ve got 10 years. Let’s see what we get out of it.”
Why Did Tommaso Ciampa Leave WWE?
Tommaso Ciampa spent a decade of his career in WWE, so many were surprised by his decision to leave the company when his contract expired. According to the former NXT Champion, he was “leaning towards” leaving for a while, but there was no single factor that led to his going. However, he did aim to get to AEW, saying it’s the promotion he wants to be part of in the 2020s.
“If I wrestled in the 90s, I’d wanna be a part of ECW. Early 2000s, you wanna be a part of Ring of Honor. I was lucky I got to do that a little bit. 2010s, I think for me at least, I wanted to be part of NXT Black and Gold. And when I looked at the landscape of professional wrestling in the 2020s, the answer was AEW, man. That’s what I want to be a part of.”
Tommaso Ciampa will defend the TNT Championship for the first time on the February 7th edition of Collision. The Blackheart will put the gold on the line against both Roderick Strong and Claudio Castagnoli in a 3-Way Match.
