Tommaso Ciampa On The Reaction To His Surprise AEW Debut: 'It Rocked Me To My Core'

In just a few days, Tommasso Ciampa's wrestling career got turned upside its head, as he left WWE after a decade in the promotion in order to sign with AEW, and promptly won the AEW TNT Championship in his first match with the promotion. But if all of that seems like a whirlwind, it was even more so for Ciampa.

Appearing on "SHAK Wrestling" one day after his first AEW appearance on "Dynamite" and a few days before winning the TNT Championship, Ciampa went through the emotions of his AEW debut. He admitted that, in the past, he had questioned those who wondered if fans would remember them upon debuts, only to find himself feeling the exact same emotion during the day, something that only passed as he began to make his entrance.

"I'm really, in real time, able to just take everything in and listen and be in the moment," Ciampa said. "And I'm in the silhouette, and I can feel 'Alright, right now they're just reacting because this looks cool.' Then Psycho Killer comes up, and I'm like 'I think about 30% of them can connect the dots on this,' because I haven't used Psycho Killer on a public stage in 12 years. And then the name and the lights hit, and it rocked me to my core. 

"It was one of those, like...I mean, it blew me away. It genuinely blew me away. And then the aftermath, the reception online, interviews, text messages from my peers, from fans, everything has just been overwhelmingly positive, which is nuts, because we are so used, we being all the performers in this industry, are so used to it being, at the very best, 50-50, at the very best. So to get this 99% positive response has just been like 'Wait, what?' Like, I want to take it. I'll take it, because I know it's going away, so I'll take it. But holy crap. Unbelievable."

As for how his deal with AEW came about, Ciampa revealed that the whole situation developed within 24 hours of his "Dynamite" debut, with him having discussions with everyone from Tony Khan to QT Marshall to AEW's composer Mikey Rukus to AEW Senior VP Mike Mansury. But Ciampa admitted that, long before those discussions, he had been considering making a move, motivated by the idea of proving he was better than ever, and providing an example to his daughter to take chances.

"We're sitting there, and I'm putting pen to paper...and I'm just looking at my wife like 'Holy crap, I've talked about this for years,'" Ciampa said. "I mean...my interest of doing this has been for at least two or three years. Last six months, I've been a foot out the door, and it was just one of them things where it's like 'Do you bet on yourself and do you just see this thing through and just find out if you're right? Do you just stay put and take the safe bet?' 

"And I've got a seven year old, and I want her to know that she can take these risks, that you get one life. You get one life, you get one career, you get one chance at this. And you just don't want to leave it with 'What if?' And that's what was the final determining factor. And man, am I happy that I made the decision."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "SHAK Wrestling" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription