Tommaso Ciampa Explains Why He Left WWE for AEW

Tommaso Ciampa is officially All Elite—and now we know exactly why he walked away from WWE after nearly a decade.

Just one day after WWE quietly moved Ciampa to its alumni section on January 27, the former NXT Champion shocked fans by showing up on the January 28 episode of AEW Dynamite. Later that night, AEW President Tony Khan confirmed the move with the signature “All Elite” graphic, making Ciampa’s signing official.

But what pushed Ciampa to leave the company he helped build during the black-and-gold era of NXT? In a new interview with Sports Illustrated’s Rick Ucchino, the “Psycho Killer” explained that this wasn’t a rash decision—it was something that had been building for a while.

“It’s something I’ve been leaning towards for quite some time. I don’t know that I can say there’s one sole factor that led to it or caused it,” Ciampa admitted. “I think it’s one of those things when your contract is coming to an end, you naturally have discussions.”

As for where he felt he belonged in this era of wrestling, Ciampa made it clear that AEW was the natural next step in his journey.

“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. 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.”

Ciampa also opened up about past creative limitations in WWE and how AEW’s collaborative energy gave him the space to bring his long-shelved ideas to life.

“There were a lot of times I tried… and for one reason or another [over the years in WWE], it just wasn't something that I could do,” he said. “But for Tony [Khan] and the whole crew to just collaborate the way they did and have open arms, and see the vision and just allow it to breathe and have a chance, I'm already thinking six months, 12 months ahead on the evolution of the Psycho Killer.”

Ciampa made his AEW debut by answering Mark Briscoe’s TNT Title open challenge, setting the stage for his first match this Saturday on AEW Collision. The debut featured a dramatic lights-out entrance and a new theme song, “My Shadow Knows,” symbolizing the start of a new chapter for a man who once ruled NXT.

The move ends months of speculation after Ciampa filed new trademarks for “Psycho Killer” and “Psycho King,” dropped fresh merchandise, and launched a new booking campaign shortly after his WWE deal expired. Now, with a TNT Championship match already lined up, Ciampa is wasting no time planting his flag in AEW.

This one’s personal, and Ciampa’s clearly all-in on what comes next.