Ricky Starks won’t apologize for visiting and supporting his friends in the WWE. Starks has been spotted attending various WWE events like the 2023 Royal Rumble while working for AEW and doesn’t see a problem with that.
“I had people from my job (AEW), I had one guy who was like: Were you at the Rumble last night? I said: Yeah and what the f–k about it? He goes: Just saying that’s a bad look. How is it a bad look? I can’t control somebody taking security footage while I am walking to a bus. I don’t control that. Tell me how that is a bad look? We got people on our own program talking about people in the other company but me having my security footage exposed is a bad look? Give me a break!” he said in a recent interview. “It was simply visiting a friend. I was only on the bus. I stayed on the bus. I wasn’t trying to cause any type of issues or anything like that. The whole purpose was I was walking to the bus so I wouldn’t be seen by anybody.”
Starks maintains he wasn’t the only person from AEW at WrestleMania either.
“You know who else was in the box with me? Dustin [Rhodes], QT Marshall and Aaron Solo. This is not me putting them on blast. This is just saying yes, there’s people in the box. There’s footage of me celebrating. There was no issue about that. There was no issue at all. Only because before I had went Tony (Khan) already said: Hey, it’s okay. So like, there was no issue. Now, if he actually didn’t mean that, okay, I don’t know, that’s different,” he said.
“There was no issue about that and I still, to this day, don’t see a problem with it. I’m going to tell you why. I got into this because I am a fan. I love professional wrestling. Regardless of where I work I’m going to go and support people that I love and I’m gonna go support wrestling in general. I was there to watch Jade’s first Mania match and was extremely proud. I saw her match and then I was there to see Cody’s match. Guess what? I was at Mania the year before that and saw Cody lose. There is no issue with somebody being at another show,” he continued.
Speaking about not being on AEW TV for most of 2024 he said: “I’ve been home. I’ve been healthy. I never was injured. I did have a stinger. I got a stinger in that match against Top Flight in March. I got immediately checked out and everything was fine but I was just concerned at the time. So that happened and then I was just home. That’s kind of where it’s been at. I’ve just been home. It’s kind of a mindf–k because I’m in my prime and it sucks when you’re on such a momentum, riding the wave, doing work and doing stuff, and then to just be at home for so long,” he commented.
Starks didn’t have a reason why AEW is not using him either.
“Beats me. I could have 1,000 theories about what’s really going on. The fact of the matter is that if I don’t have a definitive answer, I can’t just make up an answer for people and just assume. Would I love to know the exact reason? Do I have speculations about why? Absolutely but that does nothing to speak on things that I speculate, does nothing for the situation,” he said.
Ricky Starks appeared at GCW’s show over the weekend announcing that he was returning to the promotion. Starks will be taking on Matt Cardona at GCW’s Highest in the Room on December 14th.