During the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE talent Giovanni Vinci talks on his release from WWE and if he had discussions with TNA or AEW.
Vinci was released in February of 2025.
On his release from WWE:
“I mean, it did suck to know that that chapter was over. Especially because you make big sacrifices to come here. You leave your family behind, you move halfway across the world. You start out at the bottom of the ladder again, with people who have never done a roll in their life, basically, even though you’ve been wrestling for six, seven years. But you just got to not let your pride or your ego take over when it comes to that. So you go through the whole process again, eventually get to the main roster, and then it’s so weird, because I really did put a lot of effort into those vignettes, I planned out where to shoot what, where in Vegas with the guys there. I loved how the vignettes turned out. I was super happy with those, and I thought, man, here we go. This is it. This is the time, and then it just went the way it did. So, yeah, just having that thought in your mind, okay, here we go. But then it’s kind of taken away. It sucked. But like I said earlier, it was such an emotional roller coaster leading up to that that it’s okay. I do believe everything happens for a reason. So, especially in wrestling, never say never. So we’ll see what happens from here on out. But I’m more focused on the future and the present now and looking forward to it.”
On being repackaged right before his release:
“I thought the plan was to get me going right away, and I didn’t find out about that till basically the day of the show. So at the end of the day, you’re a professional. Whatever the plan is, you try to make the most of it. I do have to say, as far as entrance-wise, that was my favorite entrance I’ve ever done. Because in the group, I always felt a little bit like I tried to fit in. That’s why I didn’t stand out. Whereas with that character that I did in NXT, and it worked great there, doing that on the main roster, I just felt like, Okay, I have some sort of direction, who I am, what I’m supposed to do. Was my favorite entrance, personality-wise, charisma-wise and everything, and then the plan changed the day of. Looking back now, I feel like from a business standpoint, if you look at the positives, it definitely got attention, definitely got people talking. The unfortunate thing for me is just that not more came out of it, because I feel like we could have done a lot of cool stuff with that character on SmackDown. I know Apollo and I could have tore it up in a match. We did in NXT. We did on Main Event. We have great chemistry. It was just things just kept happening. We moved to a different channel two weeks after then the next thing happened. I wasn’t on TV for a little bit. And, yeah, that’s just one of those things that are a little unfortunate. Because I saw myself actually having really good matches with the guys in the United States title picture at the time, like Melo, LA Knight, Andrade at the time. I think we could have done some cool stuff there. But, yeah, it is what it is.”
On if he had talks with TNA or AEW after his 90 day non-compete was up:
“Not really. I did eventually have some good conversations. But nothing is set in stone yet. I just know that the way I’m working out now, I think I’m good to go already, and the longer it goes on, the better setup I will be. And when that opportunity comes, wherever it is, I know I’m going to go all in and I’m going to kill it, because that was the whole point of taking that time off just to completely recharge the batteries and come back fresh.”
All quotes are courtesy of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
Vinci also talks on John Cena, Gunther, Imperium and more!
You can listen to the full interview below.