During his time in WWE, Fabian Aichner – known as Giovanni Vinci for a time – was mainly delegated to being the third man of The Imperium stable. However, last night, Aichner made his return to pro wrestling, debuting in TNA on “Impact.” 

Following Cedric Alexander’s X-Division Championship victory over Leon Slater, Aichner’s theme hit before he eventually walked out and stared the new champion down from the stage. He then made it clear that he’s after the X-Division Championship, establishing himself as Alexander’s first major rival moments after capturing the title. While he seems to be in good shape, Aichner hasn’t wrestled since late 2024, when he faced Apollo Crews in a 90-second match on “WWE SmackDown,” as well as losing several dark matches, ending his WWE run on a losing streak. 

Aichner looked back at his WWE run in a recent interview, claiming that moments after getting the call informing him of his release, he saw it as an opportunity to finally rest. Taking place just weeks ago, Aichner stated that he was open to a return to wrestling but didn’t want to rush into anything, though it seems he may have been keeping a secret at the time.

Aichner has been wrestling since 2011, and he first joined WWE in 2017 after a one-off match in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament the year before. He is a former two-time WWE NXT Tag Team Champion.

TNA Wrestling has been making headlines as of late for poor ratings and choices such as pulling talent from matches that were already announced, but they unveiled some positive news during last night’s episode of “TNA Impact”. A returning Santino Marella praised new Knockouts Champion, Léi Ying Lee, and also announced that Indi Hartwell has re-signed with the company.

Hartwell signed with TNA in April 2025 after showing up at Rebellion. While she hasn’t won a title since being with the promotion, she was the number-one contender for the Knockouts title last fall. She also had a very well received dog collar match with Dani Luna to end their feud. Outside of TNA, she held Women’s Championships for House of Glory, Reality of Wrestling, and Awesome Championship Wrestling.

More recently, Hartwell appeared in an Instagram video with Dexter Lumis. Hartwell helped him with a makeover following his release from WWE. Lumis recently departed WWE, while Hartwell (his former TV wife) was released in November 2024.

Elsewhere on “Impact,” Cedric Alexander dethroned Leon Slater as X-Division Champion, denying Slater the chance to make history as the longest reigning X-Division champion in history. Eric Young also became the number-one contender for the TNA World Championship after winning a battle royal, but before that, Steve Maclin will face Mike Santana for the title on next week’s show.

The New Day’s abrupt WWE exit shocked many fans, especially considering Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E were all prominent members of the roster for years and were assumed to be “WWE lifers.” Because of how talented they are, few people doubt they’ll find success outside of WWE, and Hall of Famer John “Bradshaw” Layfield believes The New Day will become even bigger stars.

“Maybe they want to just go off into the sunset. I doubt that’s true; I hope it’s not! They’re gonna be bigger stars in a year than what they are now,” JBL said on “Something to Wrestle.” “Those guys are going to draw money.”

JBL shared his belief that there will be a “bidding war” over the former New Day stars, and though he was surprised they departed WWE, JBL was happy to see Kingston and Woods betting on themselves. He spent a sizable portion of the podcast talking about the two performers, including compliments for their abilities as pro wrestlers.

“That Kofi-Mania was legit; I mean, he … is a freaking global superstar. So is Xavier Woods!” he expressed. “Those guys are talented. I worked with them a ton of times. I loved working with them.”

Kingston and Woods were informed of their release at the beginning of May. Assuming they have the standard contract terms for WWE performers, they’ll likely become free agents at the end of July or in early August.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Something To Wrestle,” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.