Speaking on Stick to Sports, Ciampa revealed that early in 2026, reports surfaced online claiming he intended to leave WWE once his contract expired. While he had no idea where the story originated, he admitted the speculation ended up working in his favor.

“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.”

Rather than creating problems, Ciampa said the rumor generated significant interest throughout the wrestling industry and led to several companies reaching out to gauge his availability.

“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.’”

Ciampa also shut down any suggestion that AEW had been in contact with him before his WWE contract ended, stressing that Tony Khan respected the rules regarding contract tampering.

“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.”

Although he ultimately landed in AEW, Ciampa revealed that he seriously explored other possibilities during free agency, including wrestling internationally. He admitted he was surprised by how many promotions around the world were thriving and considered the overseas scene an exciting option before deciding on his next chapter.

“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.”