Former WWE Star Giovanni Vinci Addresses Potential In-Ring Return After Over A Year Away, Says He Had ‘Good Conversations’

Published: 2 hours ago by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: 1 hour ago by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

Former WWE Star Giovanni Vinci Addresses Potential In-Ring Return After Over A Year Away, Says He Had ‘Good Conversations’

Former WWE star Giovanni Vinci has revealed that he has had good conversations about his future following his release last year.

One of eleven stars to be released by WWE in February of last year, Giovanni Vinci has yet to make an in-ring return, despite his current free agent status.

During a recent appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, the star was asked if he had been in contact with AEW or TNA Wrestling, saying:

“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.

“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.”

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Last seen on television back on the September 20 episode of WWE SmackDown back in 2024, Vinci would go on to compete in a number of untelevised dark matches, with his last being a loss to Luke Gallows in December.

Vinci is yet to make an in-ring return, having previously competed as Fabian Aichner on the independent scene and in NXT until being repackaged in 2022.

The former WWE star may be remembered for his under-10-second loss to Apollo Crews in September 2024, with their subsequent encounter on SmackDown lasting over 90 seconds.

“Veni, Vidi…?” – The Imperium Members That Didn’t Vici.

A phrase attributed to Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor apparently said “veni, vidi, vici” back in 47 BC, with the translation to English being “I came, I saw, I conquered”.

Conquer is very much what some members of Imperium did in WWE, with WALTER going on to become GUNTHER, and Marcel Barthel going on to become Ludwig Kaiser before seeing new life as El Grande Americano. The same can’t be said for the aforementioned Aichner, who was reborn as Giovanni Vinci, and Alexander Wolfe, now back to Axel Tischer, who parted ways with WWE after his contract expired in June 2021.

Vinci and Wolfe had both seen success in WWE, yet struggled to escape from their spot on the stacked roster, while GUNTHER would see an astronomical rise that led to the main roster, the Intercontinental Championship and a two-time run as World Heavyweight Champion.

As Aichner, the star was a two-time NXT Tag Team Champion with Barthel, but couldn’t parlay that success into a main roster championship run, and it’s difficult to identify precisely why from what was seen on television, particularly with it being reported that some in WWE were “high” on him.

Wolfe was another curious case, initially joining SAnitY with Sawyer Fulton, Nikki Cross, Eric Young, and later Killian Dane, back in 2016 before becoming a member of Imperium some three years later. SAnitY would split up when Young was drafted to SmackDown, while Wolfe would be transferred to NXT, joining Imperium in June of that year, ending his WWE run on that brand with a loss to Dane in May 2021.

For his return to SmackDown, before losing unceremoniously to Crews, Vinci came out with a change gimmick and stripped back entrance, though retained the “Veni, Vidi, Vinci” spots, sans pauses and camera flashes. Perhaps the sub-ten-second loss was the nail in his coffin as a WWE star.

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.