Fabian Aichner is officially starting over in TNA, and he’s making it clear why he wanted to do it under his real name.
While speaking to WhatCulture Wrestling, Aichner explained why he returned to wrestling under his real name after his WWE run. He made it clear that the Giovanni Vinci persona was important to his career, but Fabian Aichner feels much closer to who he actually is.
“It feels great, man. Obviously, the Giovanni Vinci character or that persona was an important part of my career and I’m grateful that for that experience, but having my real name back just feels a little bit more authentic, a little bit more to who I really am, a little bit more real to my values.”
Aichner said his TNA version is not some forced character. Instead, he is taking pieces of his real personality and turning up the volume for TV. So, that difference has already hit him emotionally, as Aichner admitted he gets goosebumps talking about this new run.
“And really, all I’m doing is that that cliche saying in wrestling, I turn up the volume a little bit. Like, I take things that are really me and I amplify them a little bit and I put that on TV. And I think that’s why that first and second appearance already felt very different to me in TNA. It feels very authentic. Uh I get goosebumps talking about it a little bit. So that speaks for itself and I I really can’t wait for the future.”
This comes after Aichner officially signed with TNA Wrestling following his surprise arrival after Cedric Alexander’s X Division Championship win. According to The Takedown on SI, the deal is expected to keep him with the company at least through the summer. Aichner previously said he needed time away from wrestling after his WWE run ended, calling that final period a difficult stretch that required a reset.
“I think it’s pretty well known that I took a little bit of time off over the last course of the year. It was quite the roller coaster towards the end [of his WWE run], and the whole point was to recharge the batteries a little bit. I think that definitely got accomplished.”
TNA started to feel like the right move after a friend in Germany told him the product had improved, which led Aichner to check it out for himself.
“And as it so happens, sometimes things were just pointing to TNA. A friend of mine in Germany pointed out that TNA has been improving their product greatly. I agree with that. So I checked it out.”
Aichner’s TNA debut came right after Cedric Alexander defeated Leon Slater in a Best 2 out of 3 Falls match to win the X Division Championship on the May 14 episode of TNA iMPACT! That immediately put Aichner close to the X Division title scene, especially with an Ultimate X match for the championship already confirmed for Slammiversary.
So at the end of the day, Aichner’s message is simple: TNA is not getting a recycled version of Giovanni Vinci. It is getting Fabian Aichner, and he says that version already feels like the most authentic one yet.
Do you think Fabian Aichner’s real-name TNA run will help him stand out more than Giovanni Vinci did in WWE? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.
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