Contracts expiring, wrestlers finding new homes. Oh yeah, yup, this is the good stuff.
Fresh off the departure of Powerhouse Hobbs and his imminent arrival in WWE, former two-time NXT champion and multi-time tag team champion Tommaso Ciampa inked a deal with All Elite Wrestling less than a week after his 10-year run with WWE came to an end.
This is why it’s important for wrestlers to have options. It affords them a refresh they might need, or more appropriately — historically — prove their true value to themselves and the people who might have undervalued them.
The Past Lives of Ciampa and Hobbs
That sounds like a bad movie, but the reality is both were stuck in holding patterns that in my opinion were not going to go anywhere, were not going to improve and summarily, although Hobbs had probably more upside with his spot in AEW relatively speaking, Ciampa was very much relegated to working alongside Johnny Gargano in the tag division. Given that he’s turning 41 in a few months that probably wasn’t going to change, and while Hobbs had at least been consistently on AEW television, Ciampa hadn’t worked a televised match since Dec. 15, a tag match in which #DIY lost to Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes. Previous to that he dropped a U.S. title match to Dragunov the week prior, and although he and Gargano did defeat Fraxiom two weeks before that, they had been mostly working the NXT Live circuit since August/September.
Putting yourself in his shoes, you can guess we’re looking at a similar situation to Hobbs where the question is asked “where am I headed here and what’s my ceiling?” and more succinctly, “is it time to move on?” The answer in both cases was “yes” and that’s fair considering their situations. I’m not honestly sure how much farther Hobbs was going to go in AEW, and conversely I don’t think Ciampa was going to go much farther in WWE without heading back to NXT.
In both their cases each is getting a fresh start in their new homes and that’s welcomed as we assume Hobbs based his choice on similar terms. Ciampa flatly stated in the Sports Illustrated interview released Thursday, the need is there and always lingering to want and desire to test themselves to see, in Ciampa’s words, if “I’m as good as I think I am.” The same is true for Hobbs, and I think both are sound bets; these moves are the wrestling landscape reshuffling itself into where the wrestlers have the opportunity to work in the place that best fits them. And I think Hobbs and Ciampa are both where they fit best now.
The Sports Illustrated Chit-Chat
“It’s something I’ve been leaning towards for quite some time,” Ciampa told SI. “I don’t know that I can say there’s one sole factor that led to it or caused it. I think it’s one of those things when your contract is coming to an end, you naturally have discussions.”
There are quite a few quotes from Ciampa, and if you’d like to read the full article, you can find it here, as well our own rundown of what the former NXT champion said here. The heart of what he said zeroes in on style and what is ultimately the best fit for him, Hobbs more recently, and any one wrestler across the world. It’s a matter of philosophy, and he makes that point.
“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.”
Straight away you can see his mindset was fixed on the style of wrestling and storytelling he wants to help convey, calling back to the original ECW and ROH specifically prior to his arrival in NXT. Like it or not, even if AEW doesn’t measure up to those 1:1 in the modern day, it fills that void in the wrestling space. As time goes on that’s more clearly understood, from a pure philosophical level, much like Hobbs finding his way to a place where I think he’s going to excel, the same is true for Ciampa in AEW.
The identical is true for anyone else who finds themselves gravitating to one or the other depending on what they want out of their careers. Neither is wrong, it’s just a matter of fit. It doesn’t mean that either is necessarily guaranteed to succeed, that depends on them, but the point is they owe it to themselves to find a place that fits how they view wrestling (in this case) and embrace that.
Beyond that, in the article he made the point that it’s a matter equally so of opportunity and presenting yourself exactly as you see yourself and either succeeding or failing on those merits. And I was watching the actual interview after it was published, Ciampa said something that was kind of interesting that wasn’t captured in the articles. I’ll paraphrase him, but he said he spent so many years on the independents and the last 10 years in WWE, and now was his chance to take everything he’s learned throughout his career, and especially from his WWE tenure, and apply that with no safety net. With a chip on his shoulder, proving what he believes to be true, much like I’m sure Hobbs is doing as well for his own reasons, and become the definitive version of “Tommaso Ciampa” the wrestler.
“For a long time, I had to listen to people tell me, not so much directly to my face but more so online, that 2018 was prime Ciampa. I’m a hundred times better now than I was then. That was nothing. That was absolutely nothing. I’m physically better. I’m mentally sharper. My storytelling, my psychology is on a whole different level than it was back then… what people are about to see is going to blow their minds. It’s gonna shock the world, because I finally have a shot to find out if I’m as good as I think I am.”
That reads as a mission statement, and it comes off as though he knows what he wants from this last period of his career. For what’s it worth, based on his impression, AEW is on board with him. That’s indicative in how well his debut came off on television. What that means over the long term of his contract remains to be seen, and we know how this has gone before with AEW. However what’s clear to me from watching his interview with SI and reading the articles is that there’s a fire there to prove people wrong and himself right. To me, that’s half the battle right there.
A Dynamite Reaction
The tangible thing we do know is his excitement, passion and the reaction from the crowd once they knew for sure it was him stepping down the aisle were organically authentic. That’s not something you can fake and manufacture, and it’s the product of caring that much combined with having earned fans’ respect. It’s the end result of putting in the time, working hard and having that acknowledged.
In the last couple of days I’ve rewatched his series of matches from NXT with Johnny Gargano and I’m reminded of a time in wrestling where story and combat blended perfectly into a tapestry of violence that to me has stood timelessly. Most of those matches were over 7 years ago–the unsanctioned matches, the street fight, and the last man standing match for the NXT title. I remember that as clearly as their reunion when Gargano won the NXT championship, and ultimately once they started teaming again.
These journeys resonate with people. I think as fans when it’s someone who has sacrificed the time and put forth the effort, that clicks and that passion is reciprocated back to the wrestlers — in this case Ciampa — who have earned that respect. His debut Wednesday was a moment in time, one he and the fans in attendance likely won’t forget. However, that reaction only has value because of the effort he has put forward the last 20 years or so and the equity he has earned from busting his ass (…and most of his body), working hard on his character, and understanding who he is while making a connection — positive or negative depending on whether we were supposed to love him or hate him — with the fans.
The response was a product of something organic from an audience who has invested in him, and walked with Ciampa in the shadow of his story.
