Following his exit from All Elite Wrestling, Ricky Starks is now Ricky Saints of “WWE NXT.” As Saints explains, though, the road to WWE wasn’t easy, as his final 12 months in AEW got here with much uncertainty. During an appearance on “Busted Open After Dark,” Saints addressed his lengthy absence from AEW television, which he believes might be attributed to various things.
“You may say it was [CM] Punk leaving and things kinda fell apart, absolutely. I probably agree with you on that,” Saints said. “Or you possibly can say it’s that Ricky didn’t play the politics well enough. Okay, needless to say … There’s so many things you possibly can say. What I can say for myself is that after I got hurt in March, that was it, I never got here back. Even then, I wasn’t hurt. It was a precaution thing where I got scared because I had a stinger. Then I used to be nice. After that, no dice, no communication, no nothing. And that’s okay because I ended up here.”
Amidst Saints’ absence from television, which began in March 2024, some reports suggested that he turned down storyline pitches from AEW. Saints later denied this to be the case, noting that he never refused any creative ideas.
“Never once was I not willing to do something, never once was I sabotaging anything,” Saints reiterated. “What I believe it probably was is there was probably things said to [AEW CEO Tony Khan] from other people possibly.”
Looking ahead, Saints will make his in-ring debut for “NXT” next week in a tag match against Wes Lee and fellow former AEW star Ethan Page. Je’Von Evans will function his tag partner.
In the event you use any of the quotes in this text, please credit “Busted Open After Dark” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
