Tommaso Ciampa’s transition to AEW has given him the opportunity to work with wrestlers he had not been able to face during his lengthy WWE run, but the moment that most clearly confirmed the move for him involved a familiar opponent rather than a first-time matchup.
Speaking on the Battleground Podcast, Ciampa was asked when he experienced the feeling that he had found something in AEW that he did not realize he needed. His answer came quickly: Mark Briscoe.
“Sharing the ring with Mark Briscoe right out the gate!” Ciampa said.
Ciampa pointed not only to their first AEW encounter, but also to their subsequent No Holds Barred match. For him, those matches represented more than another chance to have a hard-hitting contest. They reconnected him with a wrestler and a wider circle of relationships that had been part of his career roughly 15 years earlier.
For more background on this topic, read Kevin Knight Reflects On AEW’s Trust In Him During Kenny Omega World Title Main Event.
“Continuing that with the no holds barred match with him,” Ciampa said. “That’s a dude that I shared the ring with a good 15 or so years ago.”
A Familiar Opponent in a New Chapter
Ciampa spent nearly a decade in WWE, a period that included significant accomplishments and major visibility, but he had grown frustrated by not getting to work with a number of the industry’s leading names outside that system. Once his WWE contract expired, moving to AEW opened a different set of possibilities.
That change naturally created the appeal of fresh matchups. Yet Ciampa’s comments underscore another benefit of moving between promotions: wrestling can restore connections that have been interrupted by the shifting paths of a long career. A performer can leave one locker room, spend years working elsewhere, and then find himself standing across the ring from someone who knew him well before either man reached his current position.
For Ciampa, Mark Briscoe was exactly that kind of connection. Their shared history meant there was already familiarity, trust and a sense of how the other man approached wrestling. Rather than needing to build an entire dynamic from the ground up, they could draw from experiences that dated back well before Ciampa’s time in WWE.
That history mattered immediately. Ciampa described their reunion in terms that emphasized the unusual closeness of the wrestling world, where performers can be deeply connected while traveling together, only to lose regular contact as careers take them in different directions.
“This is a fun traveling circus where you can be brothers and family with a group and 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,” Ciampa said.
It is a description that helps explain why returning to the ring with Briscoe carried such weight. Ciampa was not simply revisiting an old opponent. He was reconnecting with a relationship forged through the demanding, nomadic rhythm of professional wrestling, where shared locker rooms, long drives and repeated matches can create bonds that remain intact even after years apart.
The Briscoe Connection
Ciampa expanded the thought beyond Mark Briscoe alone, saying that the feeling was consistent with his history around the Briscoe family.
“And that’s kind of how it was with Mark,” Ciampa said, “and how it’s always been with the Briscoe family.”
That statement gives additional context to why the AEW matches stood out in a career move that otherwise centered on new opportunities. The value was not limited to having a notable opponent available. It was the chance to once again share an environment with people who represented an earlier stage of Ciampa’s own path in wrestling.
Wrestlers often speak about the business as a family, but Ciampa’s comments put a practical meaning behind that phrase. The family element is not necessarily about being in the same company every week. It can endure through long absences, different contracts and entirely separate professional chapters. When the people involved meet again, the familiarity can return quickly.
Ciampa said that was exactly what happened with Briscoe. The matches brought back memories, while also allowing the two wrestlers to create something new in AEW. The No Holds Barred stipulation, in particular, gave their reunion a setting built for intensity and physicality, making it a significant continuation of their shared history rather than a brief nostalgic encounter.
“So, that was one of the moments where just being out there with him and doing it with him again, just brought back a lot of memories and it’s always a good time when you’re around the Briscoes,” Ciampa said.
Why the Moment Resonated
Ciampa’s answer is notable because it defines a successful move in personal and creative terms, not only through status or career advancement. Leaving WWE allowed him to pursue bouts with prominent non-WWE talent, something he had wanted after years of limited access to many potential opponents. But the feeling that AEW was right did not arrive only because a new set of names was available.
It arrived through a reminder of why Ciampa had been drawn to wrestling in the first place: the chance to share the ring with people who understand his background, match his intensity and carry a mutual history into the present.
In that sense, the Briscoe matches bridged multiple parts of Ciampa’s career. They connected his pre-WWE experiences to his post-WWE direction, while showing that a new promotion can provide room for both unexplored matchups and meaningful reunions. A roster change does not erase the past; sometimes it gives a wrestler the setting to revisit it with a different level of experience and perspective.
Ciampa’s description of the business as a “traveling circus” also captures the uncertainty that comes with any major career transition. Wrestlers frequently move through different companies, territories and locker rooms. Some relationships are maintained closely, while others become occasional reconnections. There is no guarantee that two performers who once worked together will find their way back to the same ring.
That is what made the opportunity with Briscoe significant. It was not presented as a carefully planned reunion years in the making. Ciampa instead described the natural ease of reconnecting: two wrestlers who had gone their separate ways meeting again and immediately finding the rhythm that had existed between them before.
AEW’s Opportunity for Ciampa
Ciampa’s arrival in AEW has therefore carried two parallel possibilities. One is the prospect of matches against talents he had not been able to work with during his WWE tenure. The other is the ability to renew connections with wrestlers from earlier phases of his career, including Mark Briscoe.
His comments suggest that both matter, but that the second category delivered the clearest early emotional validation. A new locker room can offer unfamiliar challenges, yet a familiar opponent can make a new environment feel immediately recognizable. In Ciampa’s case, standing across from Briscoe gave him that sensation right away.
The No Holds Barred match deepened it. Rather than merely sharing a ring for a conventional reunion, Ciampa and Briscoe continued the program in a stipulation that demanded a more forceful and memorable encounter. Ciampa did not detail every aspect of the bout, but he made clear that continuing to work with Briscoe reinforced the initial feeling he had after their first AEW match.
For a wrestler who wanted the freedom to face top talent outside WWE, that response is telling. Ciampa did not frame AEW solely as an alternative location or a new contract destination. He framed it as a place where old bonds can be renewed and where the work itself can bring back memories that had been set aside by time and distance.
Mark Briscoe’s role in that realization was central. Ciampa’s immediate answer, and his warm reflection on the Briscoe family, made clear that their shared-ring history gave his AEW chapter an important early anchor. New opponents may define much of what comes next, but reconnecting with Briscoe was the moment Ciampa knew he had found something he had been missing.
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.