How WWE Contributed to Tommaso Ciampa Making the Jump to AEW

On the January 28 episode of Dynamite, Tommaso Ciampa became the latest former WWE star to make the jump to AEW. But this wasn't any old debut, and this wasn't the same Ciampa that fans had been watching on SmackDown.

Ciampa answered Mark Briscoe's TNT Title open challenge, and three days later on Collision, the Psycho Killer was back and walking out with the gold. He followed that up with another win a week later before losing the title to Kyle Fletcher 11 days after his arrival.

The veteran's debut came after a decade-long run with WWE, and many felt that he'd be there for the rest of his career. However, the former NXT Champion had other plans, and interestingly, those plans had been brewing for a while.

Tommaso Ciampa knew it was time to take a risk

During an interview with The Takedown's own Rick Ucchino after becoming All Elite, Ciampa revealed that the prospect of leaving WWE had been on his mind for some time. And with his WWE contract coming to an end, and following discussions with his family, he knew the time was right to move on.

While appearing on Close Up with Renee Paquette, Ciampa continued to give fans an insight into why he decided to leave WWE. He explained that his financial situation played a big role in how everything played out, but not quite how they might have expected.

"The biggest decision of it all was 'Are we finally ready to do it?' When I left NXT to make the move to the main roster, financially, we weren't ready to do that, and we knew it. There was not really a question of ' Let's take a risk, and let's bet on ourselves.' It just wasn't in the cards. We had, at that time, a three-year-old, now seven-year-old, it just wasn't there."

"But now, I'm starting to go, 'Yeah, I think we are at the point financially, let's take the risk.' I'm not getting any younger. I don't feel old, I feel great. But it's one of those things where everything just lined up. Our discussions were far more about real life than this dream."

After beating Ciampa to reclaim the TNT Championship, Kyle Fletcher was quickly confronted by another former champion, Mark Briscoe. This set up a Ladder Match between the pair at Grand Slam Australia. In the main event, MJF puts the AEW World Championship on the line against Brody King.

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