Tommaso Ciampa has only been in AEW for a little over one week, but he has already had a roller coaster of a journey in his new environment. He made his surprise debut on the January 28 episode of “AEW Dynamite” to confront Mark Briscoe, accepting Briscoe’s challenge for an AEW TNT Championship match. That bout would take place three days later on the January 31 episode of “AEW Collision,” where the “Psycho Killer” shocked the world by defeating Briscoe to become the new champion. All of this occurred just a few days after his WWE contract expired, and during a recent interview on Sports Illustrated’s “The Takedown,” a family vacation played a part in his AEW debut happening so soon.
“My wife and I, I don’t know, a couple of months ago or so when we started to realize we’re not going to stay with WWE, we’re going to bet on ourselves here. I said ‘Well, my contract’s up at midnight, January 26, nobody knows that and I want to keep it that way.’ Where is AEW on that Wednesday? They were in Texas, and my wife for, I don’t know, five years has been eyeing up Blue Hill Ranch, which is in Texas. It’s a giraffe safari where you get to stay, and we looked at it and Dynamite and Collision, Blue Hill Ranch is in the middle of the two. So I said ‘Babe, why don’t we just book a family trip and if things work out and I can get to AEW that Wednesday, it’s a two-hour drive, and if it doesn’t, we have a family vacation.'”
Ciampa explained that he put the feelers out shortly after his contract with WWE expired, which led to him having conversations with both QT Marshall and RD Evans about potentially showing up in AEW. The current AEW TNT Champion stated that he was in Texas and was able to be at both shows, and before he knew it, he was signed with the company.
Presentation Is Everything To Tommaso Ciampa
Tommaso Ciampa has made an immediate impact in AEW since arriving, and one of the things he was very passionate about when joining the company was how he would be presented. The “Psycho Killer” noted that both he and his wife listen to his new entrance music in the car and credited AEW’s in-house composer Mikey Rukus for nailing the music and having such a passion for collaboration. However, Ciampa actually credits the time he spent at the end of his WWE as an important period for him to prepare for the next phase of his career.
“What a whirlwind,” Ciampa said. “I’ll say that if I didn’t get to stay home for the last six weeks of my contract, I don’t know that I would have had as much time to prep and get everything ready you know?” Ciampa revealed that he spent a lot of time licensing for trademarks, as well as having the man he worked with in WWE on the famous “Blackheart” design draw up the new Psycho Killer skull logo, something Ciampa was very happy about as he had wanted to work with the man for a number of years but couldn’t. The “Psycho Killer” also believes that he did his best work in the dark, away from the public eye, and given that the people in AEW have lived up to their end of the deal presentation wise, Ciampa thinks the payoff has been well worth the wait.
“All I wanted for a very long time was presentation, and that presentation that they put together was unbelievable…crushed it.” As for what’s next for Ciampa, former AEW TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher appeared on the entrance ramp following Ciampa’s win over Mark Briscoe to congratulate him, and given that the “Protostar” has a long history with Ciampa’s title, that could showdown could be in Ciampa’s future for AEW Grand Slam Australia on February 14, or even the Revolution pay-per-view on March 15.
Please credit “The Takedown” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Read the full article here
