Tommaso Ciampa On His AEW World Title Match Against Darby Allin: “It Was My Love Letter to Pro Wrestling”

Tommaso Ciampa is proud of his AEW World Championship match against Darby Allin from earlier this year.

On the April 22, 2026, episode of Dynamite, Ciampa challenged Allin for the AEW World Championship. The match turned out to be a violent affair. However, despite his best efforts, Ciampa was unable to dethrone Darby.

Speaking to Undisputed recently, Tommaso Ciampa described his match with Allin as a love letter to pro wrestling. The Psycho Killer added that it was very important for him to deliver a brilliant performance that night, as a lot of people had counted him out. The former TNT Champion added that he couldn’t have hoped for a better start to his AEW World Title run than that match with Darby.

Here’s what Tommaso Ciampa said (per Fightful):

“There’s no better way to kick off what a Tommaso Ciampa world title run would look like than that Darby match. It was my love letter to pro wrestling. I knew what I wanted and expected it to be, but I think a lot of people maybe counted me out and thought my best days were behind me. It was very important for me to have that match with Darby and have it go as well as it did. The next time people see an AEW world title match with Tommaso Ciampa’s name linked to it, they’re going to know they’re in for something special. Hey, maybe in a perfect world, that match would be with Kenny Omega. That would be an epic first-time clash that a lot of people thought they’d never see.”

Ciampa is currently embroiled in a heated feud with Chris Jericho. He is set to battle Jericho’s “Painmaker” version in a No Holds Barred Match at Redemption this Sunday.

Relive the highlights of Ciampa vs. Darby below: