Tommaso Ciampa’s arrival in All Elite Wrestling came with a familiar opponent waiting across the ring. By answering Mark Briscoe’s open challenge for the TNT Championship earlier in 2026, Ciampa stepped into a major new chapter of his career against someone whose history with him stretches back well before AEW.
That history mattered. Ciampa and Briscoe had previously shared the ring during their respective Ring of Honor tenures, but their AEW meetings represented something different: two veterans who had taken vastly different routes through professional wrestling, reconnecting years later with a championship on the line. Ciampa ultimately defeated Briscoe to become TNT Champion, and their rivalry continued into a No Holds Barred match.
Speaking on the Battleground Podcast, Ciampa described the experience as a meaningful reunion with a wrestler and family he has long respected. His remarks painted a picture of an immediate comfort level between two performers who may have spent years apart but did not need long to rediscover their connection in the ring.
“Sharing the ring with Mark Briscoe right out the gate and then continuing that with the no holds barred match with him – that’s a dude that I shared the ring with a good 15 or so years ago,” Ciampa said. “This is a fun traveling circus where you can be brothers and family with a group. Then as you disperse, you just kind of lose touch with one another. But every time you see each other, you just kind of pick up right where you left off.”
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For Ciampa, that feeling is not exclusive to Mark. He connected it to the broader bond he associates with the Briscoe family, a name that has carried enormous meaning in independent wrestling and Ring of Honor history. Ciampa said being around Mark again brought him back to earlier stages of his own career and made their AEW work especially rewarding.
“That’s kind of how it was with Mark and how it’s always been with the Briscoe family,” Ciampa continued. “So that was one of the moments where just being out there with him and doing it with him again, it just brought back a lot of memories. It’s always a good time when you’re around the Briscoes.”
A first AEW encounter built around familiar energy
Ciampa’s first AEW appearance was not immediately a match. Instead, it was a face-to-face confrontation with Briscoe, setting the tone for the TNT Championship challenge to follow. Ciampa recalled kissing Briscoe on the cheek as he made his entrance, a moment that reflected the unusual mix of affection, competition and intensity that can exist between wrestlers with a shared past.
In discussing that initial encounter, Ciampa focused heavily on Briscoe’s personality and the response he generates from live audiences. Briscoe’s passionate approach has been a defining part of his identity for decades, and Ciampa emphasized that this energy is obvious the moment he is around him.
“My first ever appearance with AEW was just a face-to-face with Mark. I kissed him on the cheek as I walked out,” Ciampa said. “Just the energy that he gives, and that good old toothless smile of his… he’s got an infectious, contagious passion for pro wrestling for life in general that the second I saw him it was a big warm hug.”
Ciampa went on to call Briscoe someone who “just loves life” and “loves wrestling,” explaining that Briscoe’s presence makes performing with him particularly enjoyable. That appreciation extended beyond what happens bell to bell. For Ciampa, the entrance itself remains a striking reminder of Briscoe’s connection with fans.
“Then that music – when you hear that music, oh my gosh,” Ciampa said. “There’s an energy in the crowd. Every time he walks out, it’s just unbelievable.”
That crowd energy formed an important part of the backdrop for Ciampa’s AEW debut. A TNT Championship open challenge is built to create uncertainty, particularly when a new arrival is the person answering it. Ciampa’s pre-existing familiarity with Briscoe gave the situation an added layer: it was a fresh AEW matchup, but it was also a reunion between wrestlers who knew the foundations of each other’s styles and personalities.
Different roads, a quick connection
Although Ciampa and Briscoe had wrestled in Ring of Honor, Ciampa stressed that their earlier work together was from a very different time. He estimated their ROH encounter took place around 2012, leaving well over a decade for both men to develop, change and accumulate experience in separate environments.
That gap could have made their AEW matches feel unfamiliar. Instead, Ciampa said it became a source of intrigue. He knew he had grown as a performer and expected Briscoe had done the same. The question was whether their evolved approaches would complement one another in real time.
“I said it to him prior to us actually locking up the first time. I just said, ‘This is going to be fun,’” Ciampa recalled. “Cause this is just two completely different wrestlers getting in the ring for the first time ever. We had shared the ring in ROH, but that was like what? 2012 maybe. So I know how much I’ve grown as a performer. I can only fathom how much he’s grown. We’ve gone totally different paths.”
Ciampa’s wording captures the unique nature of long-delayed rematches in wrestling. Two wrestlers can have history without necessarily having current familiarity. The versions of Ciampa and Briscoe who competed in AEW were shaped by years of different opponents, different pressures and different career experiences. Their past supplied trust, but their present-day work required them to find a new rhythm.
Ciampa said that rhythm arrived quickly. He framed their chemistry as something discovered through performance rather than something extensively designed ahead of time. That approach is consistent with how he prefers to work, valuing the spontaneity of a live environment and the organic reactions that can come when wrestlers and the audience experience key moments together.
“It was interesting to feel that chemistry come together so quickly,” Ciampa said. “We both made it a point. I’m not really a practice, rehearsal type guy. I like to just get in there and just kind of do it. I feel like that’s the most organic thing that you can experience with a live crowd is that you’re just going out there, just doing the art form and doing it. Everyone’s just kind of in it together for the first time.”
The No Holds Barred match took the connection further
Their first AEW championship match established Ciampa as the new TNT Champion, but the No Holds Barred follow-up presented a more demanding test of the connection he described. Matches with that stipulation require more than an exchange of offense. They depend on timing, communication, trust and an understanding of how to build escalating physical drama without losing the audience.
Ciampa felt that he and Briscoe were particularly aligned during that second encounter. Rather than merely relying on their past or working through an unfamiliar style, he said the two appeared to be thinking in unison as the match unfolded.
“It was interesting just how quickly we clicked and even more so in the hardcore match,” Ciampa said. “I felt like we were sharing the same mind. It’s totally in sync. It was just an awesome experience.”
The comments underline why the Briscoe rivalry was an effective launching point for Ciampa in AEW. His first major program did not rest solely on the surprise of his arrival or the importance of the TNT Championship. It also had a personal foundation rooted in shared history, mutual respect and a genuine enthusiasm for working together again.
For Briscoe, the open challenge placed him opposite a competitor with whom he had past ties but no recent in-ring template. For Ciampa, it offered the chance to make an immediate statement in a new promotion while reconnecting with one of the most distinctive personalities he had encountered earlier in his career. The result was a championship change and a rivalry that expanded from an opening challenge into a more brutal No Holds Barred confrontation.
Ciampa’s reflections make clear that the most lasting part of the experience was not simply winning the TNT Championship. It was the opportunity to revisit an old connection in a completely new setting. Years after their Ring of Honor interactions, Ciampa and Briscoe met again as more experienced performers, took their own separate journeys into the ring with them, and found that their chemistry remained intact.
That combination of history and evolution is often what gives a wrestling rivalry its strongest emotional texture. In Ciampa’s case, AEW did not just provide a new destination. It gave him a chance to share the ring with Mark Briscoe again, revive memories of the past and create new ones in the process.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.