Why Tommaso Ciampa's AEW Debut Was Pushed Back (AEW News)
Tony Khan faced a nightmare change of plans when debuting ex-WWE man Tommaso Ciampa.
Tommaso Ciampa was originally slated to debut on the 24 January episode of AEW Collision, but Fightful Select reports that "inclement weather" forced All Elite boss Tony Khan to rip up his plans for that show. Thus, Ciampa eventually showed face on company programming for the first time on the 28 January edition of Dynamite.
That wasn't the worst thing for him, being honest. Dynamite is a bigger platform than Collision, so more eyeballs would've seen him crash land on AEW TV there than on the weekend show. Later, Tommaso beat Mark Briscoe to become new AEW TNT Champion on the 31 Jan edition of Collision.
He's since dropped that belt to Kyle Fletcher on the 11 February Dynamite. Keeping up?!
Fightful noted that Ciampa wasn't moved to WWE's alumni section until 28 January. Of course, that was a few days after he'd agreed terms on a jump to AEW, but the weather issue meant WWE reflected his leap as it happened on television. It's weird how things work out sometimes.
The website also reported that Khan and other AEW staff kept Tommaso "well hidden" before he debuted in a face to face skit with Briscoe. They clearly didn't want word leaking out that Ciampa was in the building, so all precautions were taken to ensure that this was a complete surprise to wrestling fans tuning in.
This wasn't part of Fightful's write-up, but Ciampa's old #DIY partner Johnny Gargano has been working a depressed gimmick on episodes of SmackDown over on WWE's side. His wife Candice LeRae is trying to get 'Johnny Wrestling' out of his current funk.