Tommaso Ciampa has been in the wrestling business for decades but right now it feels like he’s just getting started. The 40-year-old veteran spent the last 10 years of his career in WWE, and when he knew his contract was coming to an end, he opted not to re-sign. Instead, he looked to another wrestling company, not dissimilar to ECW, Ring of Honor, or even NXT black & gold. A place where he could really cut his teeth: AEW.
From the time Ciampa’s contract expired to signing a contract with AEW, there was a very short window to get things in motion. As soon as he stepped on the scene on AEW Dynamite, he immediately felt like a big deal. He went toe-to-toe with Mark Briscoe — a dance they haven’t done for over a decade — for the TNT Championship. In the two weeks since his debut, fans have changed their view of Ciampa (but anyone who watched B&G NXT knows he’s got it).
Ciampa notes that these days, presentation is almost paramount in getting “over” with fans. “If you present someone as this guy is a contender, he’s going for the world title, he’s face-to-face with the world champ, the TNT champ or whatever it may be, a fan who might not be familiar is going to by presentation alone say, ‘Oh, well I’m interested. Oh, he must be worthy or she must be worthy. They must be awesome.’ You don’t have that control as a performer.”
I compare it to Harley Cameron’s rise in AEW. She began her career in backstage segments with QT Marshall but fans got behind her charisma. The audience rallying behind her opened more opportunities in-ring and now she’s one-half of the Women’s Tag Team Champions with Willow Nightingale.
“There’s a really fun nuance to that underground passionate fan base. I compare it to ECW of the 90s, ROH of the early 2000s, black and gold NXT of the 2010s. Now it’s AEW of the 2020s. It’s a different dynamic. It’s a different crowd. It takes a different kind of performer and one’s not better than the other and one’s not worse than the other,” Ciampa says. “A lot of it has to do with your strengths and weaknesses. Also what do you enjoy? I really enjoy and connect with that passionate underground fan base where it almost feels like the company and the crowd as a whole has a chip on its shoulder like that’s something I’ve just been drawn to my whole life. So it’s been refreshing, it’s been really fun.”
One of the biggest pieces of his presentation is his entrance music, done in-house by Mikey Rukus. Ciampa explains that when he knew he would be leaving WWE, Adam Cole was the first person he contacted to see who made his music.
“So, when I knew I was wrapping up at WWE, Adam’s one of the first people I reached out to and I just said, ‘Hey, who made your music? Is there a way to get in touch with them?’ I started to look up Mikey and see his style, see what else he’s put out without really reaching directly out to him because I was still under contract at the time.”
From his research, he started clipping bits of music that he’s into as inspiration for his theme music. Ciampa says he did “a lot of the work in the dark” for about six to eight weeks while at home finishing up with WWE.
“By the time Mikey and I got ahold of one another, we clicked instantly. I think our first conversation was about 20 to 30 minutes. It was just refreshing because he wasn’t judging anything. He was getting it and if there was stuff I was stuck on, he was almost finishing my sentences for me. So, all of that was a 36-hour whirlwind of me just throwing it all on the table. He’s like, ‘Hey, I’m at the studio and I’m gonna work it out.’ I don’t know if it was six hours, eight hours he came to me with a rough copy. It took us seven back-and-forth takes to get to the finished product.
I’ve never had something so important as music collaboration that way and it was so quick. I love the music so much. I think it’s so important in today’s day and age of wrestling, I feel like presentation kind of trumps in-ring and promos. Those are the two things I’ve keyed myself to for my entire career. Am I fundamentally sound? Can I go in the ring? Can I cut a promo? Can I tell a story? I never really focused a lot on presentation. While I wanted to, I wasn’t able to express myself that way.”
With over two decades of experience in wrestling, Ciampa has a hard-out for retirement. Within the next 10 years, he will no longer be a full-time wrestler.
“I think one of the big things now settling into AEW, and it was one of the big things coming into it in general, is I started to develop the ‘list’. When I started I was 20 plus deep and I was still on people that I have never even wrestled in a singles match which blew my mind. Some of them are people you definitely would think I have: Swerve [Strickland], Ricochet, Claudio [Castagnoli], Roddy. We’ve all crossed paths but never actually worked singles together. One of the goals for me is to check off the checklist.
I’ve had this, not by choice of course, but this bad track record of not being able to check off those lists. For instance, when I was in Ring of Honor, Seth Rollins went through there, Generico went through there, Claudio, [Chris] Hero, Davey Richards. All these different people that during my time in ROH I never even crossed paths. Then I went to WWE. Randy Orton, AJ [Styles], we never did anything on television together, Seth again. There are so many there that I was like, ‘Oh, I never got to do stuff with them.’ So when I started to put the list together in AEW, I was like, ‘Okay, I got to check this list off. This can’t just be a list that sits there [and] I’m here for five, ten years [wondering] what could have been.’”
Ciampa is a family man, and as he watches his seven-year-old daughter Willow grow up, he wants to make sure he’s there for all her milestones. Willow was just a baby when Ciampa returned for NXT Takeover: WarGames in 2019. In that time, she’s been there to see him win titles in WWE and AEW.
“She was super nervous for me when we had to break the news to her. She would come sometimes and she has met everybody. We’ve had parties, we’ve gone to parties. In her little seven-year-old mind, it was like I’m starting a new school. ‘What if you don’t know anyone? What if they’re not nice to you?’ She got emotional. Even some of the people she was going to miss, ‘The Hair Boys’, is Pretty Deadly, ‘Kiss Lips’, which is Bianca [Belair]. ‘Neck Tattoo Boy’, which is Cody. She has nicknames for everybody, so she was just sad.
I’m so happy I brought her for the first one because it immediately changed how she views this. One, she bumped into a lot of people she’s already met and known. But two, Mark Briscoe, I think he’s got six or seven children, he’s great with kids. So charismatic, she’s meeting him and she thinks he’s just the coolest. Willow [Nightingale] has the same name, she has two titles and the coolest hair; her gear is awesome. So she’s just in love with her.”
At this stage of his life, AEW was the best option for him, as he’s looking to branch out into other avenues outside of the ring. “I like the idea of being able to go and do different appearances, actually having face time with fans again. Being open to doing things in the fitness world and having some sort of collaboration or sponsorships. Doing things in acting whether it’s television or movies, little simple things. This is going to sound super silly, we watch these shows like America’s Got Talent or Is It Cake? [Willow] will say to me sometimes, ‘You should judge that!’ That would be awesome.”
While it’s only been a few weeks since his arrival, he hit the ground running immediately. From defeating Mark Briscoe in his debut for the TNT Championship to a three-way match on AEW Collision that made my 2010s ROH heart sing, he’s not slowing down. On Dynamite, he faces his next test: Kyle Fletcher. At just 27 years old, Fletcher is a future world champion in the making, but he doesn’t plan on walking into Grand Slam Australia without the title back around his waist.
“Kyle is one I’m extremely keen on. I think he’s just an incredible worker, athlete, promo, and presentation. I’m excited to see what I do with a young guy who came from a whole different era than me. That feels like a takeover mentality I have going into that one.
It’s hard for me to pick a TNT champion who made the title and the title made him more so than Kyle Fletcher. I feel like that’s a guy who really resonates with it. He’s a big boy, he’s young, he’s athletic. He wants the title. Just [standing] face-to-face with him in the ring on Collision on Saturday, I saw it in his eyes… there’s no hesitation. He’s not nervous. He’s ready for the spotlight.”
Note: this interview has been edited for clarity.
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