Report: WWE star expected to leave company when contract expires
According to a new report, Tommaso Ciampa is expected to leave WWE once his contract expires.
On Saturday, Bodyslam reported that Ciampa’s contract is set to expire soon and he “plans on finishing his time up with the company without a renewal.”
The report notes it’s not clear if Ciampa is expected to sign elsewhere or take time away from wrestling. Ciampa’s tag partner, Johnny Gargano, is expected to continue as a singles wrestler on SmackDown.
On Friday’s edition of WWE SmackDown, Gargano unsuccessfully challenged Carmelo Hayes for the United States Championship. He was accompanied to the ring by his wife Candice LeRae, but Ciampa was not in his corner for the match.
Ciampa hasn’t wrestled since a December 15 SmackDown taping in Hershey, PA, when he and Gargano dropped a tag match to Ilja Dragunov and Hayes. Three days earlier, he dropped a United States Championship match to Dragunov on the December 12 SmackDown in a match rated four and a half stars by our own Dave Meltzer.
The 40-year-old Ciampa is a two-time NXT Champion, two-time WWE tag champion and one-time NXT tag champion with Gargano. In 2018, his and Gargano’s feud was voted Feud of the Year in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.