AEW Veterans Interfered With Ricky Starks Creative

Ricky Starks has opened up about his exit from AEW and revealed that he’s not happy “veterans” in the company interfered with his creative plans.

Ricky Starks shocked the world when he made his WWE debut, coming through the crowd on NXT. The former AEW Tag Team Champion signed his contract with WWE in the ring and now Ricky Starks has a new name in the company.

Speaking to Busted Open Radio after NXT ended, the man now known as Ricky Saints had to address his name change and accepts that people might take a while to get used to it but for him, he’s paying respect to his hometown:

It’s as close as you’re going to get to Starks. I like the name. I know a lot of people are going to be…it’s going to take time for them to get used to it. I respect that they care so deeply about me that they rebel against the name change. But at the same time, I am a product of New Orleans, first and foremost, and I want to pay respect to that as well.

I think this is the best of both worlds and that means a lot to me. Obviously, I think it’s cool to have a piece of home with me. And the person doesn’t change. I’m still that guy, so it is what it is.

Ricky Saints Doesn’t Know What Went Wrong In AEW

WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray then opened the floor for Ricky Saints to discuss his exit from AEW and Saints was quick to point out it had absolutely nothing to do with him being spotted at WWE shows and instead, it was a mixture of many things:

I don’t know the specifics of what it was. Some people, you ask the internet, it was because you were at the Rumble. Screw you. The footage got leaked from me being at the Rumble. I wasn’t backstage…I left after the first match.

Some could say well, you were at Mania in a suite and you got on camera cheering. Screw you. You’re an idiot with no friends and no passion in life if you think the damndest thing I’ve done is cheering somebody on in another company…my boss was okay with it.

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 that Ricky didn’t play the politics well enough. Alright, for sure…there’s so many things you can say.

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.

Bully Ray then asked if Saints felt that his departure from AEW was professional or personal with Saints noting that due to the manner of it he had to believe it was personal as he hit out at “veterans” for interfering with his creative:

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.

Ricky Saints already knows what his first match in WWE will be as he will team up with Je’Von Evans on the February 15 edition of NXT to face Ethan Page and Wes Lee.