Tommaso Ciampa opened up about his decision to sign with All Elite Wrestling, explaining how the promotion represents the defining era of modern professional wrestling for him. Reflecting on different generations of the industry, Ciampa compared AEW’s current role to legendary movements that shaped wrestling history.
“If I wrestled in the 90s, I’d wanna be a part of ECW,” Ciampa said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. He then pointed to Ring of Honor as the standard-bearer of the early 2000s and highlighted WWE’s NXT Black and Gold era as the environment he most wanted to be part of during the 2010s — a goal he proudly achieved.
“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.”
Looking at today’s wrestling landscape, Ciampa believes AEW fills that same role for the 2020s. According to him, AEW is where innovation, creativity, and elite-level wrestling currently thrive. “When I looked at the landscape of professional wrestling in the 2020s… the answer was AEW,” Ciampa said, making it clear this was the place he wanted to be.