Giovanni Vinci Recalls Feeling ‘Left Behind’ When Imperium Went to WWE Main Roster

Giovanni Vinci did not immediately move to the main roster alongside his Imperium stablemates, and he says he felt left behind a little bit. Vinci was part of the stable with Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser, being a dominant force in NXT UK and then moving to NXT in the US. However, when Gunther and Kaiser made their main roster debuts on Smackdown in 2022, Vinci was kept in NXT.

Vinci weighed in on the matter during his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He acknowledged that it was a little bit weird for him because he didn’t know what was happening, but said that Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom were really good with reassuring him. He eventually made his debut on the main roster at WWE Clash at the Castle in September of 2023, reuniting with the duo. You can see highlights below:

On Not Moving From To the Main Roster With Gunther & Kaiser:

“Well, that all came a little bit unexpected, because we were that group in NXT, where it was the three of us. When the call-up happened, they got called up. I didn’t. So that was a bit of a mix-up. That was also a bit of a like, what’s going on here. We started at the same time, Walter came over after that, but they went up there said, you guys, do your thing. I’ll do my thing in NXT, it will all workout. But it was a little bit like, like, an avalanche of emotions at the time, because you don’t know what’s going on here. Am I not going anywhere? What’s happening? Like, do I have to move back or whatever?”

On Feeling Like He Was Being Left Behind:

“A little bit. Yeah, yeah, but I didn’t really know why, because we did everything together all the time. Everything went well with the matches and all that. But after three days, I had a great talk with Shawn. He’s like, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re gonna figure it out.’ He’s the man. Matt Bloom as well. They were both great. And I remember three days after that, I got myself three burgers. I’m like, I’m gonna eat these, and tomorrow we go to work, show them. That’s when we came up with that character, that Giovanni Vinci character, which I had a ton of fun with. I think I did more in those three months in NXT that I had done in five, six years prior to NXT. Did promos every week, had great matches, did commentary. So that was great. And then I heard rumors about me getting called up. But you know, in wrestling, you never get too excited until it actually happens, because nothing’s ever set in stone. I mean, the debut was great, in front of 70,000 people at Clash at the Castle.”