Ricky Starks Addresses Being Backstage At WWE Royal Rumble
Ricky Starks has commented on being seen at the WWE Royal Rumble despite being a contracted AEW wrestler.
A very interesting image was shared online recently featuring AEW’s Ricky Starks walking into the Royal Rumble with Cody Rhodes and WWE’s John Cone of Talent Relations (a former referee). It is not common to see a contracted AEW wrestler appearing backstage at a major WWE show, so that caught a lot of people off guard.
On Twitter, Starks joked about it saying: “Damn they brought back GTV.”
Cody Rhodes, who won the Men’s Royal Rumble match, commented on the photo with Starks by saying he hopes that Ricky didn’t get in any trouble and that it was just a case of Starks supporting his friend.
Ricky Starks addressed his backstage appearance at the Royal Rumble in an interview with Stephanie Chase on YouTube by talking about his friendship with Cody Rhodes.
“It was important to me because that’s my friend. That’s a guy who has helped me out through a neck injury. That’s a guy who had helped me out through my career, even before AEW, when I was an extra at SmackDown. This guy talked to me and gave me advice when he didn’t have to. That’s what’s important.”
“I don’t give a s**t, and I want everyone who’s watching this to do this verbatim. I don’t give a s**t if there’s some tribalism from the fans. I don’t care if someone from my company or over there thinks it’s a bad look. I don’t give a f**k. That is my friend.”
“One thing about me is I’m genuinely going to be a friend no matter what, and if you ride for me, I’m gonna ride for you. So it’s important that I go there and see a guy who is ultimately on the biggest chapter of his career. It was important for me to be there because I would want the same damn thing.”
As he continued, Ricky Starks made it clear he didn’t care if there was tribalism from fans about this and that it was just a case of Ricky supporting Cody.
“Like I said, I don’t care what tribalism happens from the fans, from the people I work with, over there, it was important for me to go and support my friend on one of the biggest nights of his life because that’s what friends do.”
“If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I’m a genuine down-ass person that will ride for my friends, and nobody will question me for that. I refuse to let anybody question me. Or even try to give me any type of pushback on it. Because I’m a grown-ass person, I can do that.”
This coming Sunday at AEW Revolution, “Absolute” Ricky Starks will face Chris Jericho in one of the biggest matches of Ricky’s career.
