Tommaso Ciampa addresses the news of his WWE contract expiration being leaked online
While speaking to Stick to Sports, AEW star Tommaso Ciampa addressed the news of his WWE contract expiration being leaked online at the start of 2026…
“The best thing that happened to me, to be honest with you—I don’t know if you remember this—but there was a leaked internet report when I had about two or three months left on my deal that Ciampa is leaving WWE. We don’t know why, but when his deal is up, he’s leaving.
I have no idea where that came from, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me because it just raised this interest in the wrestling world. Then I started to get a lot of inquiries, and that started to make me go, ‘Oh, look at what options we have.’
And I’ll completely point blank—AEW wasn’t even a part of that. To Tony Khan’s defense, or whatever, he is very adamant that there’s no tampering, and we never spoke once. I didn’t meet or speak to Tony Khan one time until the day I was at Dynamite. That was the day I spoke to him for the very first time.
But there was so much happenstance that came from it. So, we had options, and we played with a lot of stuff. I was actually pretty excited about doing some of the overseas stuff because I was surprised how many promotions are running and doing really well.”