Tommaso Ciampa Confirms WWE Offered New Deal Before AEW Jump – After allowing his WWE contract to expire, Tommaso Ciampa made his debut for All Elite Wrestling just one week later and has since been added to the AEW talent roster. The move marked a major career shift for a performer who spent nearly a decade with WWE.
In an interview with SHAK Wrestling, Ciampa confirmed that WWE did offer him a new contract before his deal expired. According to Ciampa, discussions with the company took place over the final two to three months of his contract, with several conversations held before he ultimately decided to move on. He made it clear that the decision was personal and not driven by any negative feelings toward WWE.
“Yeah (WWE offered me another contract). Yeah. We chatted, and it was somewhere in the last two to three months, and we chatted a handful of times, and I just needed to do what I thought was right for me, my wife. I’ve got not one bad word to say about WWE. They gave me an incredible opportunity and an incredible platform, and the last 10 years, I learned a ton. I’ve evolved a ton, and it’s time for me to just take all of that and really apply it… That’s the biggest part for me was to just take the lead to it.”
Ciampa’s comments reinforce that his departure was not the result of creative frustration or conflict behind the scenes. Instead, he framed the move as the next step after years of growth and experience, both in the ring and personally. WWE was the place where Ciampa evolved from an NXT standout into a nationally recognized performer, and he acknowledged the role the company played in shaping his career.
His final match under a WWE contract took place on the December 19 episode of SmackDown. On that night, Ciampa teamed with longtime partner Johnny Gargano, but the duo came up short in a loss to Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov. The match quietly closed the book on Ciampa’s WWE run before his rapid transition to AEW.
Ciampa has continued to speak openly about his decision since joining AEW. In another interview, he went into further detail about why he chose to leave WWE for AEW. That interview can be found on WrestlingAttitude.Com at the following link: https://www.wrestlingattitude.com/2026/01/tommaso-ciampa-explains-why-he-left-wwe-for-aew.html
With Ciampa now officially part of AEW, attention shifts to how he applies everything he learned during his ten-year WWE tenure as he begins this new chapter of his career.
Tommaso Ciampa Confirms WWE Offered New Deal Before AEW Jump
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