Ricky Starks won’t be appearing for GCW in the future after all after Starks made an appearance at GCW on Saturday, hours before being backstage at Full Gear. He laid out GCW regular Jimmy Lloyd to set up a future match.
AEW hasn’t used him in months. On Tuesday night, GCW announced this evening that Starks would no longer be at their event on 12/14 in Los Angeles, his unannounced match on 12/28 in Seattle, and his unannounced match on 1/19 at The Hammerstein Ballroom.
Fightful Select first reported that AEW made the decision because of the comments made by Effy, who performs for the promotion, towards Tony Khan’s father, Shad. Fightful doesn’t have context on those comments yet. Starks can take independent dates from other companies.
Appearing on Game Changer Weekly, GCW promoter Brett Lauderdale discussed the situation. Brett noted that it doesn’t seem to be a case of Starks being a true independent contractor since AEW pulled him.
He found out about the same time as everyone else, as he doesn’t have a line of communication with AEW and has never talked with Tony Khan. Lauderdale stated he heard Starks was being pulled and hadn’t been given an explanation.
Regarding Effy, Lauderdale stated, “What Effy says is Effy’s opinion. He is an independent wrestler. He says this stuff on his own personal podcast, which is not endorsed, amplified, or promoted by GCW. He is his own guy.”
Lauderdale noted that Effy doesn’t get clearance for what he can and can’t say on his own podcast, which shouldn’t represent the promotion.
Lauderdale cotninued, “He’s a passionate person with opinions and he feels very strongly about GCW. He is a GCW soldier and sometimes he lets his emotions get the better of him. I don’t think Effy wishes….he’s just a passionate guy. I don’t have too much of an opinion about what he said. I guess, if you take it out of context, people can have different opinions on what he’s saying. He’s just one guy.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Game Changer Weekly with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
