Why Tommaso Ciampa was very happy that his status with WWE was leaked ahead of time in a backstage report.
At the start of 2026, news broke that Ciampa’s WWE contract was set to expire and the former NXT Champion was not looking to renew his deal. At the end of January, Ciampa confirmed that news was true and left the company soon after. Ciampa was also a free agent at that time, meaning that he would be free to appear in any promotion as soon as possible.
Shortly afterwards, Ciampa made his shock AEW debut by interrupting Mark Briscoe. In the months that followed, Ciampa had a reign with the TNT Championship and has been feuding with Chris Jericho. Ciampa defeated Jericho at the Beach Break special, and has been consistently booked strongly since his arrival in All Elite Wrestling.
Tommaso Ciampa Happy Reports Broke The News Ahead Of Time
Although some wrestlers have been annoyed at plans being leaked ahead of time, Ciampa feels the opposite regarding the news of his WWE exit. Recently speaking to James Stewart of Stick to Sports, Ciampa stated that the report about him leaving raised interest outside of WWE. Additionally, that opened the door to begin conversations with Tony Khan:
“The best thing to happen to me is that there was a leaked internet report when I had about two or three months left on my deal that said, ‘Ciampa is leaving WWE. We don’t know why, but when his deal is up, he’s leaving.’ I have no idea where that came from, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“It raised this interest, and I started to get a lot of inquiries. ‘Oh, look at these options I have.’ AEW wasn’t even part of that because, in Tony’s defense, he is very adamant that there is no tampering.”
