Loads of fans were left in disbelief during last week’s “AEW Dynamite” when Tommaso Ciampa, fresh off leaving WWE, showed as much as confront then TNT Champion Mark Briscoe. They were in much more shock three days in a while “AEW Collision,” when Ciampa outlasted Briscoe in a grueling match to win the TNT Championship. While loads of wrestlers have come into AEW with strong starts, Ciampa’s title win was historic, as he became only the second person in AEW history to win gold of their first match with the promotion, following Mercedes Mone’s TBS Championship win in 2024.
Appearing on the “Battleground Podcast” to advertise this week’s episode of “Dynamite” in Las Vegas, AEW owner Tony Khan was asked about Ciampa’s debut and his thought process by putting the TNT title on Ciampa almost immediately. Khan indicated the choice was based on wanting to make a splash with a giant time free agent signing in Ciampa, and a kind of make as a result of the audience in Arlington, Texas after a previous episode of “Collision” was canceled as a result of weather.
“It was our last ‘Collision’ within the Dallas residency,” Khan said. “We were in Arlington across the Dallas Metroplex and we have had these great events. And since Dallas had been hit hard with the weather, and the fans were unable to come back out, you understand, quite a lot of events got canceled. And for us, we ended up moving the ‘Collision’ show two Saturday’s ago. So I wanted to offer the fans something really special. And when Ciampa became available, I believed that was such an exciting development.”
Should you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “Battleground Podcast” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription