Absent AEW Star Speaks His Mind At Indy Wrestling Show
AEW star Ricky Starks insists that fans have yet to see the best of him.
The 34 year-old made his debut for Tony Khan’s organisation on the 17th June 2020 edition of AEW Dynamite, going down to Cody Rhodes after answering an open challenge for the AEW TNT Championship.
Starks has since gone on to capture the FTW Championship, AEW World Tag Team Championship and the 2023 Owen Hart Cup, but has been conspicuous by his absence having not competed in an AEW ring since teaming with Big BIll in a losing effort against Top Flight on March 30th 2024.
Whilst a return to AEW television remains up in the air, Starks has been in action on the independent circuit as of late. The New Orleans native battled Mike Santana in the main event of House Of Glory: Watch The Throne on 17th January at the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago, Illinois.
Despite failing to prise the HOG Heavyweight Championship from Santana, Starks took to the microphone after the bout and informed fans they could expect a lot more from him in future:
“Every time I grab [a microphone], I somehow get in trouble. So I’m gonna say it as plainly as this, I cannot thank each and every one of you. I’ve been reading your messages, asking if I’m mentally okay, asking if I’m good, checking on me. You don’t know me, but that’s the thing about this wrestling shit, it don’t matter.
We’re all a part of one thing. I have loved wrestling since I was seven. I told my mom I would buy her a house off of this, and damn it, I have done that, and I am close to giving her anything else that she wants. I don’t take anything easy. I take it the hard way. I take things the way that I want to.
If the road ain’t paved with cement, guess what? I guess I’m putting on my construction hat, and I’m going to work. If you thought that I was somebody less than a year ago, guess what? You’re sadly mistaken because I have evolved to a man four years from today, and that’s saying something because a lot of y’all, a lot of y’all have not seen anything yet from me.
With the last dying breath in this New Orleans heart, I tell you this, I’m gonna stay Absolute ‘til I d-i-e. You heard? You best believe that I’m gonna make sure I make a quick trip back here to Chicago.”
AEW Tag Team Split Up
The future of two further AEW stars is uncertain after popular tag team The Acclaimed disbanded.
The duo of Anthony Bowens & Max Caster are former AEW Tag Team Champions, as well as having picked up AEW Trios gold with legendary star Billy Gunn at AEW All In on 27th January 2023.
The tension has been building within the team for months, ultimately leading the pairing to split up on the 18th January edition of Collision.
H/T: Fightful for the above transcription.