When news broke that Tommaso Ciampa's long-time DIY tag team partner, Johnny Gargano, wasn’t going to re-sign with NXT, it felt like one of the final vestiges of a fantastically underrated in wrestling era was exiting the WWE Universe for good.

The Undisputed Era? Gone. The Diamond Mine? Gutted. Marina Shafir released – and that's just decisions that directly affected Roderick Strong; everyone from Keith Lee to Karrion Kross and even Hit Row have been handed their walking papers and the performers left behind are either under 30 with a world of possibilities in front of them, or older vets just waiting for their contracts to run out.

Ciampa was one of the few “older” wrestlers from the “old” NXT who actually stuck around and earned bigger opportunities when the Black and Gold brand started looking like a Jackson Pollock painting, taking on a mentorship role of sorts with the NXT Champion Bron Breakker. After his feud with Dolph Ziggler was done, Ciampa fully transitioned to RAW, where he would surely continue to build on that momentum and fully take the next step in his career, right? So far, the results haven't been ideal.

Tommaso Ciampa is treading water on the WWE main roster.

To say Tommaso Ciampa lost his identity when he moved from NXT to RAW would be an understatement.

For one thing, Tommaso literally lost half of his name, now going by simply Ciampa for… some reason. He also almost immediately stopped being the babyface grappler who got over with his hard work and determination, instead attacking other superstars like Mustafa Ali and eventually A.J. Styles as a gun for hire. Ciampa had even lost his signature personality on the mic, instead being used largely as a silent assassin who attacks foes seemingly for no other reason than to get himself on television.

But why? Well, Ciampa shed a little bit of light on that during his appearance on Miz TV alongside his unlikely friend Mike Mizanin.

So Ciampa is essentially serving as a Miz Minion – shout out to Twitter for the nickname – in order to… get some attention?

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Goodness, that's… a choice.

Now, in the past, befriending The Miz has been a solid business decision. John Morrison made a bunch of money as the back half of a Miz tag team, and his “Johnny Drip Drip” doesn't work if Mike isn't there too, but no one has ever used the name “John Morrison” and “Ciampa” in the same sentence before unless they were listing off names of wrestlers largely because they have almost nothing in common other than that fact. Morrison is a goofy showman who literally changes his last name based on which promotion he is performing in at the time, whereas Ciampa's entire presentation is based on being taken seriously.

Tell me, does the following segment make anyone take Ciampa seriously?

Goodness, he just looks sad – looking down at his hands unable to deliver his final line while looking the interviewer in her eyes; this isn't how the prime of Ciampa's career is supposed to be playing out.

At this point, what if Ciampa is sort of just treading water, hoping that something better comes along? He can't really go back to NXT, and likely doesn't want to be in segments talking about the size of a reality television star's balls, but unless creative swoops in with something better, maybe something like the WWE liaison to Gable Steveson, the best years of one of the best wrestlers in the world will be spent wearing another man's merch with the sleeves cut off. Tommaso Ciampa – yes, I said his full name – deserves better.