Biography
Tommaso Ciampa is one of the most intense performers of the modern era, a storyteller whose betrayal of Johnny Gargano produced one of the most celebrated feuds in NXT history. Since January 2026 he has been with AEW, where he has already held the TNT Championship and challenged for the world title, and in autumn 2026 he is working as a snarling heel.
Born Tommaso Whitney in Boston, he trained under Killer Kowalski and debuted in 2005, winning titles in New England's Chaotic Wrestling and spending a brief spell in WWE developmental in 2007. He found his footing in Ring of Honor from 2011, first as part of Prince Nana's Embassy and then as a singles act, overcoming a torn ACL that cost him most of a year to win the ROH World Television Championship from Matt Taven at Final Battle 2013.
In 2015 he teamed with Gargano in NXT's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Billed as #DIY, they became huge fan favourites, won the NXT Tag Team Championship from The Revival in a two-out-of-three-falls classic at TakeOver: Toronto in November 2016, and lost a ladder match to The Authors of Pain at TakeOver: Chicago in 2017, after which Ciampa turned on his partner. A knee injury delayed the payoff, but on his return in 2018 the feud exploded: their unsanctioned match at TakeOver: New Orleans was rated five stars by Dave Meltzer, and Ciampa went on to win the NXT Championship that July.
Neck surgery forced him to give up the title in 2019, yet he came back to win a second NXT Championship in September 2021 before moving to Raw in 2022, where he briefly sided with The Miz. In late 2023 Gargano returned to rescue him from Imperium and #DIY was reborn. The pair won the WWE Tag Team Championship twice in 2024, the second time via a surprise heel turn, and their tables, ladders and chairs match with The Street Profits and the Motor City Machine Guns in April 2025 earned another five stars from Meltzer.
Ciampa let his WWE contract run out in January 2026 and debuted on AEW Dynamite a week later, beating Mark Briscoe for the TNT Championship on Collision before losing it to Kyle Fletcher after 11 days. He turned on Briscoe in March, gave Darby Allin a gruelling, five-star test for the AEW World Championship in April, and spent the summer feuding with Chris Jericho, winning at Beach Break before losing a violent No Holds Barred rematch at Redemption.
Autumn 2026 has brought frustrating near-misses: he came up short against Kazuchika Okada for the AEW International Championship at All Out in September, and against Andrade El Ídolo for the National Championship at WrestleDream on 17 October.
