Ciampa Credits Leaked WWE Departure Report for Sparking Free-Agency Interest

Tommaso Ciampa has opened up about the unusual chain of events that shaped his path out of WWE and into AEW — and it started with a rumor he didn’t even plant himself.

Appearing on the Stick to Sports podcast, Ciampa recalled that early in 2026, with roughly two to three months left on his WWE contract, an online report surfaced claiming he was planning to leave the company. He says he had no idea where the story came from, but what happened next surprised him.

“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,” Ciampa said.

Rather than causing any friction, the report set off a wave of interest from promotions around the world. “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.'”

One name notably absent from those early conversations was AEW. Ciampa was direct in stating that Tony Khan never reached out before his contract expired, citing Khan’s strict stance against tampering. “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.”

Before AEW entered the picture, Ciampa said he genuinely considered working overseas, expressing surprise at how many international promotions are currently thriving. “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,” he admitted.

Ultimately, of course, Ciampa chose AEW — but his account makes clear that the decision came at the end of a legitimate free-agency process, one inadvertently kick-started by an anonymous internet report that turned out to be the best career move he never made.