Ricky Saints Believes AEW Release Was Personal
Ricky Saints is happy to be in WWE while admitting that perhaps he was let go by AEW due to personal reasons.
During his AEW career as Ricky Starks, WWE newcomer Ricky Saints was a former Tag Team Champion who also challenged for multiple titles like the AEW World Title and TNT Title. For several years, Starks was featured on AEW television consistently until the company decided to pay him to sit at home from March 2023.
Nearly a year after his last AEW match, the company finally let him go and Ricky appeared on WWE NXT on February 11th just one day after he was finally free of his AEW contract.
While speaking to Busted Open Radio‘s Bully Ray (aka WWE Hall of Famer Bubba Ray Dudley), Ricky Saints talked about how veterans in AEW interfered in his creative plans. When asked if his release was due to personal or professional reasons, Ricky explained why he felt it was personal because he’s always been a true professional.
“It was probably personal. Because if it was professional, it wouldn’t have happened this way. That’s how I believe it. That’s not to disparage anyone there, just so we’re clear. There’s nothing disparaging for me to say. What I am saying is the truth that I don’t know exactly what it was, and if you point to those two times that I was caught on footage at WWE, I can tell you that you’re wrong.
Some people will say, ‘We could tell he was phoning it in.’ Bulls**t. There’s never a match of mine in my entire career that I gave less than 1,000 percent. You can jump off a cliff with that opinion because it’s not even real. Don’t disrespect me and say I gave something less than a 1,000 percent. That is not in my bones. There is no part of my body that I am capable of doing that.
Ricky Saints Making WWE Debut At NXT Cincinnati
There was a contract signing on WWE NXT in Orlando where Ricky Saints signed his official NXT deal to reveal his new name while also setting up his first match as a contracted WWE superstar.
Wes Lee confronted the newcomer Saints in the ring during the contract signing, which led to Saints fighting back and clearing Lee from the ring. Ethan Page also confronted Saints during the contract signing, which led to his rival Je’Von Evans clearing Page from the ring.
Later in the show, Saints was backstage with NXT GM Ava, which led to another interaction with Lee and Page. Evans also showed up, so Ava booked a huge tag team match on the February 25th edition of NXT with Starks & Evans teaming up against Lee & Page on that episode that will take place in Cincinnati.