Fightful Select has confirmed that former NXT Team Champion and Imperium member Giovanni Vinci has been released by WWE.
Vinci first signed with WWE in 2017 and is a two-time NXT Tag Team Champion with Ludwig Kaiser and had wrestled under his real name of Fabian Aichner.
During the the May 24, 2023 episode of NXT, vignettes aired hyping the debut of Aichner’s new character – Giovanni Vinci. He re-debuted on the June 14, 2023 episode of NXT in a win against Guru Raaj. At the September 2, 2023 Clash at the Castle PLE, he reunited with Kaiser and Gunther, reforming Imperium. The trio were drafted to Raw in 2023 as part of the draft.
On the April 22, 2024 episode of Raw, after Vinci lost to The New Day, Kaiser attacked him and kicked him out of Imperium. During Night 2 of the 2024 WWE Draft, Vinci was sent to SmackDown. His last set of matches on WWE TV was on two episodes of SmackDown. He lost in just three seconds to Apollo Crews on the September 6 episode and again lost in his rematch with two weeks later on the September 20, 2024 show.
Below is an updated list of WWE releases as of 1:25 PM ET.
-Cedric Alexander
-Authors of Pain
-Paul Ellering
-Blair Davenport
-Sonya Deville
-Isla Dawn
-Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
-Giovanni Vinci (per this report)