Ricky Starks made his WWE debut a week ago on NXT before having a contract signing on this week’s show and doing a promo segment with Ethan Page.
After the show, Starks was on Busted Open Radio, discussing his new name, Ricky Saints. He explained that it’s as close as you’ll get to the Starks name and a tribute to New Orleans. He wants to pay his respects to the city, which is a piece of home for him.
Regarding his AEW departure, Starks denied that the hold on his AEW status was due to his appearances at past WWE events such as Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. He doubled down on AEW CEO Tony Khan’s approval of his presence.
Starks stated, “I can’t tell you exactly what the moment was. You could say it was Punk leaving, and things kinda fell apart. Absolutely, I probably agree with you on that, alright? Or you could say is that Ricky didn’t play the politics well enough. Alright, for sure…there’s so many things you can say,” he continued. “What I can say for myself is that when I got hurt in March, that was it, I never came back. And even then, I wasn’t hurt, it was a precaution thing where I got scared as I had a stinger. Then I was fine. After that, no, no dice, no communication. No nothing. And that is okay because….I ended up here. And it’s fine. Everything worked out. I don’t know explicitly where it went wrong. I can’t point to one thing. I can say it was a storm of things probably. Did I do something that may have tipped them off? Sure, asking for my release whenever you know, this past whatever, that could have been about it right? But never once was I not willing to do something, never once was I sabotaging anything.”
Regarding whether the release was for personal or professional reasons, Starks stated it was likely personal because if it had been professional, his departure wouldn’t have happened the way it did.
Starks said, “I will say this: there are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn’t have happened. Veterans. And that’s it. I’ll leave it at that. And if they got a problem with me, they got my number. And text me about it. I think what it was is if it didn’t work for their creative, then someone had to get the boot. That’s how I see it. But I’m not trying to be negative in my thought process about it…if you want to step on me to get ahead in your illustrious career, everyone has an illustrious career. Everyone should have an illustrious career. That is perfectly fine. But at the same time, I’m not wet behind my ears.”
Starks will make his NXT in-ring debut next week in Cincinnati, teaming with Je’Von Evans against Ethan Page and Wes Lee.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Busted Open Radio with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
