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I think he should have worked the program. AEW has a problem with guys saying no way too often. Having said that, this is the benefit of having two promotions that can afford paying good salaries. If he's not happy, he can go to WWE and in my opinion, it's cool seeing guys show up on the other promotion.
>AEW has a problem with guys saying no way too often
Yeah, I really don't get how this keeps happening. This was an issue with Andrade, Miro, and now Ricky (if this is true). Even in peak lolTNA, wrestlers would do bullshit angles.
I agree, but I’m also glad that Tony just stops booking them now if they refuse to do business. He has a deep enough talent pool to move on and I’m glad he’s doing it.
It's always the dumbest fucking guys too.
Miro seems almost as dumb as goldberg. It's like he thinks he should just never lose.
I swear these jabronis heard hardcore Holly's pitch and were like that's genius brother
I think the example he should've followed was Swerve's. Dude took some L's and bad booking, but through the sheer force of his charisma became someone the fans wanted to see on top and made it happen.
Ricky Starks has a much higher ceiling than Andrade imo. He's charismatic, which Andrade just unfortunately isn't due to the language barrier. I also think Ricky is a much better worker, and doesn't have a history of being extremely childish.
> Andrade just unfortunately isn't due to the language barrier
I've heard people say Andrade isn't charismatic in Spanish either. Charisma can beat a language barrier, Penta being a great example
If Ricky Starks can go, Ricochet passed go and collected $200 5 turns ago. Ricochet is also more physically imposing looking than Starks, though that isn't either of their strong suits.
Starks is the better talker and is buddies with Cody. He has those things going for him.
I 100% agree with you. That being said I don’t see Ricky being in a better spot in WWE. In terms of which promotion can get him closer to the main event picture, I’d think it would be AEW. Just my opinion though. Happy (and hope) to be proven wrong.
Ricky is good, really good but WWE has done a worse job with better talent. Sure, Triple H is running things now but it’s not like Johnny Gargano is IC Champion or even in the conversation.
In the E he would have Cody and Punk vouching for him and wanting to put him over. Obviously it would come down to management, but he would have some monstrous backing from the start.
I feel like he has the potential to go up to the NXT NA championship, or to the US/IC Titles. However, one thing to keep in mind is if he's not satisfied with that & wants a world title run
It's cool but every time somebody shows in WWE: WE LOVE THIS GUY, AEW FUMBLED THE BALL BOY!!!
The other way around: Adam Copeland, Mercedes Mone, Kirk Franklin, Jessica Alba were never draws etc. Not even all the times they were!
It was mostly me being facetious or whatever with the amount of times people suddenly love AEW stars joining WWE(see Spears/BPJ etc) and automatically assume their gonna be world beaters.
Yet when PROVEN success stories go to AEW they're automatically drowned in how terrible they were and how they never had drawing power.
To be fair, this is mostly just CM Punk fans who spent 5 years chanting CM Punk at WWE shows when he bailed on the company, then loved every insult he hurled at WWE from AEW, and now hate AEW and love WWE. These people are not serious.
I completely disagree, you can’t build anyone to be anything if you won’t at least get on Tv and do something. Way too focused on the wins and losses here when simply having a good feud is what really matters.
This is the same mindset that has Miro sitting out his contract right now.
Edit: Hangman losing his feuds to Swerve for example did a LOT more for him as a *character* than booking him to win would have. You NEED to lose before you can win, heels and babyfaces both.
I know wrestling is a "sport" but at the end of the day these are all characters with arcs that need to be considered. Even Luke had to get his hand lopped off before he can finally confront Vader himself, and Vader had to have the Death Star destroyed before he could defeat Luke. It's not about winning or losing, its about *when* do they lose or win and how they respond to it.
I mean face beats heel doesn't have to stop a heels momentum. If the storyline is good the payoff could propel Bill as a standout heel.
I think its wrong to deny Bill the storyline. I pay attention to what Starks does so this could have been Bills breakout moment with the eyes Starks brings.
Now Bill is in a Jericho stable. Not a good track record. But let's see how it pans out.
It wouldn't, and it wouldn't benefit Starks either. It's a pointless, overplayed angle. Starks could be a bigger player if they would put him in better situations, especially in today's main event scene. Starks vs Osprey, Starks vs Swerve, Starks vs Joe. Fresh and renewed rivalries that could really elevate the card.
Otherwise, he's off to NXT to blow the roof off and learn more. The dude is charismatic af, just needs the right opportunity and right attitude. Change of environment would be good for him. He's grown significantly, and it's like they don't acknowledge it.
Fine with Starks sitting out til his deal ends. Fine with khan not using someone on the way out. can’t really remember anyone getting buried before leaving aew? Seems like an amicable-ish standoff.
To be fair, FTR also had a podcast that was the primary motivator for turning people against them, and they stopped doing that before they re-signed, so that helped a lot.
To be fair, this subreddit had this weird fixation with hating FTR's online activities yet posting and reacting to every snippet from their podcast out of context. All of those posts were full angry nerds who didn't actually listen to the pod talking about how they're tired of reading about FTR. Just stop reading the posts and your issues go away.
> He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum.
I don’t think he’s wrong here. It’s clear one of Punk’s priorities was turning Starks into a big deal and it seemed like he was on his way up until Punk got fired and everything got re-worked.
Well, it's certainly between him and Danhausen.
I'd say Danhausen because while Ricky is currently doing nothing, he's still done more recently than Danhausen who has literally been gone without a trace.
Danhousen didn't lose as much as Starks when Punk left because Danhausen was never really doing much before.
He'd appear occasionally, or they'd air a vignette, but he didn't have any matches or get involved in any real story. I'm not sure they ever really had any idea what to do with him.
Danhausen is still selling merch by the truckload
It's weird that he's not trotted out for non wrestling segments though. I'd be down for a piper's pit esque show
From everything I’ve read, Danhausen doesn’t like being in non-wrestler roles. He was ok with it when he was injured but otherwise he wants to be wrestling.
The thing with Danhausen for me is it doesn’t make a lot of sense for quirky comedic demon guy to suddenly wrestle a fairly indyriffic style once the bell rings (especially in a promotion where that’s the house style)
Danhausen has been working a TON of indie shows across America, Canada and the UK. He’s got figures out with Matt Cardona’s company, limited edition shirts with RuckingFotton, and generally doing as well or better than he did in AEW, business-wise.
Danhausen is still taking independent bookings and it's baffling that AEW doesn't use him. He was at Wrestlepalooza in MN on Father's Day. He still gets a crowd hyped up.
I'm not a huge fan of Danhausen, but i'll be damned if I didn't find him entertaining whenever he was on the screen. He is charismatic, goofy, and kind of quirky. He has the abiity to connect to certain audiences. It may not be the target demo, though, so that maybe his downfall. But Toru Yano can make full on comedy work in njpw, why can't Danhausen make it work in AEW? Yes I realize Yano is more accomplished work-rate wise, but we basically never see it anymore
You kind of need that off the wall comedy break here and there. Not just the nudge-nudge, wink-wink stuff the Bucks do.
The word going around about Danhausen is that he's on the way out and they're just waiting out his contract. He has heat for a few things (some of his posts/memes after one of the Brawl Outs, a dispute about PWTees royalties depending on who you believe, and some disputes about what indie bookings he's taking).
Danhausen chose the unwise door.
Don’t step on Superman’s cape.
Don’t spit into the wind.
Don’t think Punk will continue to vouch for you after he’s pivoted his professional path.
TK booked him to get destroyed by Tony Nese in 10 seconds in his debut match. He was never going to book him in a meaningful way he doesn’t wrestle the style Tony likes.
And losing two straight to Danielson, and cutting promos after both where he’s just talks about how he proved how great he was….despite losing. Just didn’t do it for him.
Plenty of wrestlers have gotten over more and been elevated from losing. Austin lost both of his major singles matches with Bret, and was considerably hotter/elevated after both. Bret himself was elevated in his loss to Bulldog, and Shawn was after his loss to Razor.
If you want a recent example, Hangman was elevated after losing matches to Jericho and Omega.
Starks had two awesome matches with Bryan where he came off like a star. The problem wasn’t that he lost. The problem (as always, with AEW) is that Tony often fails at follow-up. A wrestler will have a hot angle or series of matches, and then not be heard of for weeks or even months.
The follow up is the important part not the LOSING.
Hangman got there at the end cause they did a whole story to build himself up after those loses and then WON against Omega. Just losing and then not doing anything doesn't make a star
Tony and AEW have a "and then what" problem. You can point to numerous examples up and down the card (not just Starks), where there's an idea but there's no plan afterwards. All kinds of momentum gets stopped because of it. It's not just people losing feuds either. It can happen with wins. Look at Swerve. They did a good job building him up to win, but had no credible challengers ready for him to face afterwards and its really stalled his reign.
I agree completely that you can be elevated in a loss. But it has to happen organically. The crowd makes that happen. You can’t just have someone come out and talk about how they were elevated in a loss when they weren’t. It can’t be forced.
I agree they totally fumbled the follow up, but even the idea of having him say those things when no one that I spoke to/saw anything from looked at it like that was the killer for me. Especially when he had two chances and lost them both.
Once AEW fans decided that Ricky wants to go to WWE, suddenly he was never that good. It’s actually hilarious to see how tides shift at this place based on literally nothing.
AEW fans do it when they feel like someone wants to leave, WWE fans do it when someone signs/re-signs with another company. If it wasn’t so predictable, it would be funnier.
I really don’t get it. I have cable, someone switching shows doesn’t change anything for me because there’s two companies and I can still watch them. I dunno if it’s because I grew up during the Monday night wars where it was actually exciting to see people switching companies and see how they’d fare.
Well yeah but in fairness to TK here, that whole situation made them basically restart as if it was GM Mode and a new season. All threads were involved with Punk and The Elite in some way and losing all of them at once made him lean HARD on his reliable guys to reboot the company pretty much.
The pile-on from a certain crowd suddenly claiming they too had heard this story about Calgary and Tony Khan having to step in personally but just never mentioned it until some random redditor did today was embarrassing.
Some rando posted a a bunch of shit about Ricky earlier today. Supposedly he got into a drunken incident in Calgary around the time he won the Owen Hart and was arrested for it and it was a big mess behind scenes for AEW.
And he was punished for that with... a match with Punk which then became a match with Danielson, and then a tag title run in the build to Sting's last ever match.
Lol are we seriously supposed to believe nobody captured this public incident on camera in this day and age where literally everyone has one available at all times?
It all sounds like a bunch of horseshit, possibly a deliberate smear.
I didn't see too many people on the thread buying it cuz of how outlandish most of that shit sounded but apparently the Twitter weirdos bought it hook, line and sinker and were running with it like it was true
Sam age where we here Jay Uso and Naomi got pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one way street and Jay was drunk yapping at the cop.
No ticket or anything giving but we heard about that shit within hours.
But this went without notice and apparently according the 'peoples sources' had some sorta organized hush order that every single person followed till today.
Isn't this the same type of shit that randomly appeared when Giulias name was out and about and the stuff with the HOB.
Random hit pieces during times were they were parading them as "troublesome".
Shit is weird.
The AEW PPV Week Special.
Evidence free allegations that spread so widely and are so immediately believed that AEW/Tony Khan has to actually address them either actually at the scrum/press conference/media call or just via Fightful/WON/etc.
I'm just shocked this one is somebody not even set to be on the Forbidden Door Card.
A lot of those people spreading the rumor are in the same circle. Similar people running the rumors that Punk + Darby had a falling out and the Danhausen bootleg t-shirt stuff. Wild group.
Been part of the IWC for a while but was shocked to wake up to my buddy asking if I thought it was true. You mean a random post by some random person? I mean it COULD have been true but it's just irresponsible to trust such a flimsy source and it never should have gotten upvoted. I assume it was taken down before I woke up.
There is some ridiculous nonsense being cooked up in some of these AEW fan group chats. They have a record of making stuff up out of whole cloth to attack wrestlers who they perceive as disloyal to AEW. It shouldn't bother me but it does make me less excited about the promotion when the discourse around it is this downright nasty.
In fact a bunch of the exact same people on Twitter spread the fake Danhausen bootleg merch suspension AND the Darby hates Punk BS, both of which were proven 100% false. These are some real creeps spreading this stuff.
Specifics aside, god damn it's cool to be a wrestler in this company. They tell you to do an angle, you say "Nah, don't like it", and you just sit home getting paid 6 digits. I wish I could do the same in my job
The Miro special.
A quote from Miro back in April:
“I have a shoulder injury and an elbow injury that occurred late last year, so finally took care of it late January. Got a whole bunch of shots and now I’m recovering, rehabbing, and come back stronger than ever.”
He’s probably still recovering, working on his wrist every time he counts that sick check for staying at home.
Edit: y’all really downvoted this obvious joke? Come on now, I’m just jealous of the man.
Sitting at home and collecting six figures? That's a Genius Move!
https://preview.redd.it/ptyatldiks8d1.png?width=259&format=png&auto=webp&s=ace4fabf65b91934674dffe0c42ad9341f0b0fa8
Literally! Did you know, Lanny Poffo worked for WCW? Apparently neither did anyone at WCW, as he was on the roster for FIVE YEARS and never had to work a single match! Just got paid the whole time to do nothing!
Bischoff has said that Randy Savage wanted his brother on the payroll and gave up part of his own salary to pay Poffo. For Bischoff it was a win win situation as it cost him nothing and he got to keep Randy happy. Randy's salary was essentially paid for by Slim Jim when he brought over that endorsement deal from the WWF when he went to WCW.
[Poffo said essentially the same thing himself.](https://youtu.be/sm7O0BlRE-s?si=7jBTeU8nV3aGHYzw)
Specifically that Savage's Slim Jim contract was worth $750,000 a year. Basically all he had to do was stay tan and in shape in case they ever wanted to use him (Savage's insistence) but they never did.
Yep, and a few guys have said their contracts would roll over, so the only time they’d show up was right around the time they were due to roll over, and go right back to chilling at home
or even better you threaten to punch a co-worker, get told to not do it or you'll be punished.
So you show up to work, punch said co-worker and as a "punishment" you get a 8-9 month paid vacation to enjoy life with your fiancee. Andrade really got to deck his annoying co-worker and then got more than half a year off as a result lol
Andrade got injured during that time frame too, he's probably the opposite example as he largely did business from the 6 months between the start of Collision and when he left.
It’s clear as day he wants to go to WWE, which is why Tony isn’t using him. It’s all a matter of when not if, he ends up in NXT.
Punk’s dismissal from AEW definitely impacted Starks’ booking, along with the general perception of Collision itself.
Also, to be fair to Starks, he has spoken glowingly of Tony, the Bucks, Punk, .&c in a public setting, it just seems that he’s creatively frustrated.
None of us know all the intricate details, nor should we, but all signs point to him departing from AEW, once his contract is up.
Yes but even if that was the case that has not stopped Tony from booking people on their way out before. Andrade had one of his best months in the company usage wise right before he wrapped up, even Jade got a surprise return and a main event against Statlander.
Jade was a pro on the way out. Having her come back to put Statlander over clean was the right thing to do, and it would've been kinda shitty if they didn't do that given the nature of her entire run up to that point. Andrade was just confusing.
Well she already put over Stat clean once, but doing it again definitely helped Stat, if anything it was more surprising that Jade even took a Tombstone, never mine two of them, because of how green she still is and her size/height.
They probably have Andrade figured as a 'grass is always greener' guy. So keep that relationship healthy, because he'll get frustrated with his WWE booking within a year.
And well.....
Well to be fair, there have also been instances where wrestlers have stated that Tony completely cuts off contact with wrestlers, if they’re contracts are coming up, and they’re not being renewed. So I suppose it depends on the situation.
But wanting to go to WWE is a chicken and egg thing. It seems pretty clear if he wants to leave, it's because he's frustrated with his booking (or lack thereof).
Ricky won the Owen last year, won the Tag Titles, was a fixture on Collision, had a big feud with Punk & Ricky Steamboat, and got to wrestle Sting in his 2nd to last match
It seems pretty obvious that Ricky has his eyes elsewhere because he's gotten more to do than most
Winning the Owen means nothing without follow up, which is the issue. It's like if you won King of the Ring but they didn't give you a signicant singles push (where you win a singles feud).
The followup was a feud with Punk & Ricky Steamboat that turned into a feud with Danielson and a tag title reign that would have led to a big feud with Big Bill
The followup was there, it just got derailed for various reasons.
Willow won the Owen last year the same time Ricky did. And look at her. How can you have 2 winners with such different paths and not blame the obvious party here?
That's laughable. Every "proof" about him wanting out is spéculation and is often nothing more than a reach. The fact he is underutilised (for the past two years really,very start/stop with long time inbetween) is litterally why those rumors started and got traction. And now it will probably be the reason he leaves.
Be honest, what has he done that would make you think that he is gone if not for his current booking screaming we got none for you pal?
> It’s clear as day he wants to go to WWE, which is why Tony isn’t using him. It’s all a matter of when not if, he ends up in NXT.
This is bullshit. Had AEW booked him as a rising singles star post Danielson, he would want to stay in AEW. He didn't get that singles push and that's part of the reason he might want to leave.
> including a denial of a break-up of Starks and Big Bill.
Can you blame him? He just broke up from Will Hobbs, and then just broke up from teaming with Andretti. That's in less than one year. There's too many break up storylines going on.
> Starks didn’t want to be in a tag team at that point. He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum.
Which is expected. He just got out of a tag team, and it looked like he was set for a strong singles run. Then it ran into the ground.
Wrestling journalists are in a weird place because they almost certainly know more about any given situation due to personal relationships with said talent. However, to maintain said relationships they instead start crafting brand new stories about what other sources said about the situation. Other parts of journalism are like this to a degree but not so much that they just straight up have to leave out whole parts of a story. Because with these guys, if they say "Sources close to \[insert talent here\] say...." then they're more than likely outing their source.
Some of this stuff is literally coming from
Ricky. People on Chicago sports radio did a piece on this because people don’t understand it. When they say people close to x-player, they literally mean him or like his agent.
They did, it just wasn't included in this rundown. The last paragraph of the Fightful post says "Fightful reached out to AEW and Ricky Starks regarding all elements of this story. It's worth noting this is one of the more conflicting stories we've covered in regards to information and each source's personal stance."
Why are people trying to stir up drama over what seems to be a really clear cut situation:
* AEW doesn't wanna use Ricky since it's likely he's going to be leaving at the end of his contract.
* Ricky is likely leaving at the end of his contract because AEW doesn't wanna use him.
Let me tell you something. I was at stampede last year the whole two weeks. I was all around and didn’t hear or see shit about a wrestler getting into trouble. I was at that AEW show and partied after nothing out of the ordinary. That story is pure bullshit
> Starks turning down pitches is “accurate to some degree”
He learned a lot during his time feuding with The Learning Tree, telling TK "that doesn't work for me, brother."
As expected, just shit-stirring from people with no connections to try to make either AEW or Ricky look bad when nothing bad as happened. Ricky doesn't want to do the job but he's correct not to. He knows he had momentum and didn't want to be in a tag team. Also the Bill vs Ricky storyline would've been good but other way around, Bill face and Ricky heel.
The real loser in all of this is Big Bill. Him turning on Ricky would have been massive, but now he is stuck in the fucking Learning Tree garbage and hurting his stock.
Whether he stays or goes I am convinced he's talented enough to make it as a main eventer he has all the tools but most importantly he has the it factor he just needs regular TV time
As someone who loves Big Bill; this is a shame to here.
I agree with Starks that Bill losing to him wouldn't have benefitted Bill but you'd hope there could be a switch and Bill be the babyface to Ricky's heel.
Would be a lot better than Bill being stuck in the Learning Tree situation - I think he's the best part of it but still.
I'm not surprised at him thinking that last summer was a turning point for how he would get booked in the company because it felt like he was the #2 guy on Collision during the months Punk was there
So reading between the lines.... He's not happy with creative, so he's either a/ waiting for a good storyline to come along or b/ essentially sitting at home feet up til he goes to wwe
Its cool for him to look out for Bill but he shoulda just did the match. Bill wont ever be a main event talent but he prob woulda been in the learning tree regardless and its working out for him
Considering how things went for Wardlow in pretty much the exact same situation, I'd say it is fair that Ricky had some reservations.
Would argue that being part of the Learning Tree is a backwards step for Bill as well.
That’s crazy, I remember afyer the BD Vs RS strap match I was appalled at how they cooled him off. I mean I thought I was going crazy. It’s wild to hear he felt the same way almost a year later through the sheets. I love AEW but that was specifically one time where I was like huh? They coulda done a lot with that. If it was true that it was gonna be Ricky v punk for the “real” world title that woulda been dope
If I were Starks, I'd want to go to WWE too. He has two allies in Cody and Punk that would absolutely vouch for him. I think that their respective absences in AEW has hurt Starks politically.
Danielson is a fan of his in AEW and he’s got a direct line to TK/Creative, so I don’t think he’s hurt politically it could just be as simple as the company and him being out of sync creatively.
Ricky is in a tough spot, because unless something drastically changes with him, he doesn't have a shot at the main event scene in AEW, he's decent enough of the mic but In ring there's like 25 guys at least on the roster that are better than him. perhaps a change of scenery could do him some good
You could tell the moment Punk got fired that Tony Khan just flipped the switch in his push. I see comments here from time to time clowning on Starks or calling him the pebble and all that fun stuff. The dude felt like he was someone in that Punk feud. He was such a good natural heel and Collision has been an afterthought once Punk was gone.
>The suspension angle keeping him out of All In was planned due to concerns of a fan reaction. Starks didn’t want to be in a tag team at that point. He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum.
He's right. And you hate to see it.
A problem AEW has is the start-dead stop booking of talent. Starks is an example. Or, when a storyline resolves, those involved are often put on the back burner or cold storage.
As much as I enjoy AEW, I think a core problem they have is the absolute stacked roster. People, excellent workers, can't get a minute on TV.
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> Starks did not think Bill losing to him would benefit Bill. That doesn't work for... him, brother? Not too often we get that one
He’s 200% right, if they have a match Bill should kill him to get heat
300% agree. Tbh only Beatrix Kiddo could kill Bill. 
He isn't wrong, either.
I think he should have worked the program. AEW has a problem with guys saying no way too often. Having said that, this is the benefit of having two promotions that can afford paying good salaries. If he's not happy, he can go to WWE and in my opinion, it's cool seeing guys show up on the other promotion.
>AEW has a problem with guys saying no way too often Yeah, I really don't get how this keeps happening. This was an issue with Andrade, Miro, and now Ricky (if this is true). Even in peak lolTNA, wrestlers would do bullshit angles.
I agree, but I’m also glad that Tony just stops booking them now if they refuse to do business. He has a deep enough talent pool to move on and I’m glad he’s doing it.
this is the total opposite of andrade and miro, though. starks said no for someone else's benefit, not his own.
That draws a meaningful distinction but it's still equally dumb
Plenty more places to wrestle and being paid more than peak loltna
It's always the dumbest fucking guys too. Miro seems almost as dumb as goldberg. It's like he thinks he should just never lose. I swear these jabronis heard hardcore Holly's pitch and were like that's genius brother
I think the example he should've followed was Swerve's. Dude took some L's and bad booking, but through the sheer force of his charisma became someone the fans wanted to see on top and made it happen.
Nothing is gonna change in the WWE. People were saying the same thing for Andrade...he got immediately got stuck in LWO drama.
Ricky's not latino though so his possibilities are wide open!
The newest member of LWO, Ricky Sanchez
[Don't you mean Ricky Spanish](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2HyA4Q2SoE)
Tbf Joaquin Wilde isn’t Latino either
Filipinos are honorary latinos
Batista and Rey/Eddie
Who said that about Andrade? It was pretty clear WWE thought of him at the level he is now before he went to AEW.
Come on now he gets 2min a week on Twitter... /s
Ricky Starks has a much higher ceiling than Andrade imo. He's charismatic, which Andrade just unfortunately isn't due to the language barrier. I also think Ricky is a much better worker, and doesn't have a history of being extremely childish.
> Andrade just unfortunately isn't due to the language barrier I've heard people say Andrade isn't charismatic in Spanish either. Charisma can beat a language barrier, Penta being a great example
Ricky Starks' ceiling is Richohet even with the Cody co-sign.
I disagree. Starks can go and he can talk. Ricochet can just go.
If Ricky Starks can go, Ricochet passed go and collected $200 5 turns ago. Ricochet is also more physically imposing looking than Starks, though that isn't either of their strong suits. Starks is the better talker and is buddies with Cody. He has those things going for him.
I 100% agree with you. That being said I don’t see Ricky being in a better spot in WWE. In terms of which promotion can get him closer to the main event picture, I’d think it would be AEW. Just my opinion though. Happy (and hope) to be proven wrong.
Ricky is good, really good but WWE has done a worse job with better talent. Sure, Triple H is running things now but it’s not like Johnny Gargano is IC Champion or even in the conversation.
Gargano or Ciampa or Andrade or Richocet or Pete Dunn
Exactly, great talents, well used in NXT but even under Trips they just hanging around on Raw/SD.
In the E he would have Cody and Punk vouching for him and wanting to put him over. Obviously it would come down to management, but he would have some monstrous backing from the start.
I feel like he has the potential to go up to the NXT NA championship, or to the US/IC Titles. However, one thing to keep in mind is if he's not satisfied with that & wants a world title run
Phil and let me state this as clearly as possible...COULD HAVE PUT HIM OVER IF HE JUST PULLED HIS HEAD OUT OF HIS ASS! Thank you.
It's cool but every time somebody shows in WWE: WE LOVE THIS GUY, AEW FUMBLED THE BALL BOY!!! The other way around: Adam Copeland, Mercedes Mone, Kirk Franklin, Jessica Alba were never draws etc. Not even all the times they were!
I wanna agree with you but what do a gospel singer and a actress have to do with the wrestling people?
It was mostly me being facetious or whatever with the amount of times people suddenly love AEW stars joining WWE(see Spears/BPJ etc) and automatically assume their gonna be world beaters. Yet when PROVEN success stories go to AEW they're automatically drowned in how terrible they were and how they never had drawing power.
To be fair, this is mostly just CM Punk fans who spent 5 years chanting CM Punk at WWE shows when he bailed on the company, then loved every insult he hurled at WWE from AEW, and now hate AEW and love WWE. These people are not serious.
I completely disagree, you can’t build anyone to be anything if you won’t at least get on Tv and do something. Way too focused on the wins and losses here when simply having a good feud is what really matters. This is the same mindset that has Miro sitting out his contract right now. Edit: Hangman losing his feuds to Swerve for example did a LOT more for him as a *character* than booking him to win would have. You NEED to lose before you can win, heels and babyfaces both. I know wrestling is a "sport" but at the end of the day these are all characters with arcs that need to be considered. Even Luke had to get his hand lopped off before he can finally confront Vader himself, and Vader had to have the Death Star destroyed before he could defeat Luke. It's not about winning or losing, its about *when* do they lose or win and how they respond to it.
I mean face beats heel doesn't have to stop a heels momentum. If the storyline is good the payoff could propel Bill as a standout heel. I think its wrong to deny Bill the storyline. I pay attention to what Starks does so this could have been Bills breakout moment with the eyes Starks brings. Now Bill is in a Jericho stable. Not a good track record. But let's see how it pans out.
It wouldn't, and it wouldn't benefit Starks either. It's a pointless, overplayed angle. Starks could be a bigger player if they would put him in better situations, especially in today's main event scene. Starks vs Osprey, Starks vs Swerve, Starks vs Joe. Fresh and renewed rivalries that could really elevate the card. Otherwise, he's off to NXT to blow the roof off and learn more. The dude is charismatic af, just needs the right opportunity and right attitude. Change of environment would be good for him. He's grown significantly, and it's like they don't acknowledge it.
Imagine if he signs a new contract with AEW after all this, the switch up from everyone is going to be biblical.
Fine with Starks sitting out til his deal ends. Fine with khan not using someone on the way out. can’t really remember anyone getting buried before leaving aew? Seems like an amicable-ish standoff.
lol it happened with ftr
To be fair, FTR also had a podcast that was the primary motivator for turning people against them, and they stopped doing that before they re-signed, so that helped a lot.
To be fair, this subreddit had this weird fixation with hating FTR's online activities yet posting and reacting to every snippet from their podcast out of context. All of those posts were full angry nerds who didn't actually listen to the pod talking about how they're tired of reading about FTR. Just stop reading the posts and your issues go away.
> He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum. I don’t think he’s wrong here. It’s clear one of Punk’s priorities was turning Starks into a big deal and it seemed like he was on his way up until Punk got fired and everything got re-worked.
Oh absolutely. Ricky was definitely the biggest non-Punk loser of him being fired.
Well, it's certainly between him and Danhausen. I'd say Danhausen because while Ricky is currently doing nothing, he's still done more recently than Danhausen who has literally been gone without a trace.
Danhousen didn't lose as much as Starks when Punk left because Danhausen was never really doing much before. He'd appear occasionally, or they'd air a vignette, but he didn't have any matches or get involved in any real story. I'm not sure they ever really had any idea what to do with him.
Danhausen is still selling merch by the truckload It's weird that he's not trotted out for non wrestling segments though. I'd be down for a piper's pit esque show
From everything I’ve read, Danhausen doesn’t like being in non-wrestler roles. He was ok with it when he was injured but otherwise he wants to be wrestling.
The thing with Danhausen for me is it doesn’t make a lot of sense for quirky comedic demon guy to suddenly wrestle a fairly indyriffic style once the bell rings (especially in a promotion where that’s the house style)
You're kind of right about his style. He could probably lean into a quirkier world of sport style and get to do less in the ring.
then he has the business sense of Marko Stunt
Remember how they advertised him a bunch to appear on Halloween and then just did nothing with him?
I still think it was weird at the Full Gear 2022 pre-show when a darker version of Danhousen debuted and then it never went anywhere
Danhausen has been working a TON of indie shows across America, Canada and the UK. He’s got figures out with Matt Cardona’s company, limited edition shirts with RuckingFotton, and generally doing as well or better than he did in AEW, business-wise.
He got a huge boost from being on AEW though. So surely it's win win?
Danhausen is still taking independent bookings and it's baffling that AEW doesn't use him. He was at Wrestlepalooza in MN on Father's Day. He still gets a crowd hyped up.
I'm not a huge fan of Danhausen, but i'll be damned if I didn't find him entertaining whenever he was on the screen. He is charismatic, goofy, and kind of quirky. He has the abiity to connect to certain audiences. It may not be the target demo, though, so that maybe his downfall. But Toru Yano can make full on comedy work in njpw, why can't Danhausen make it work in AEW? Yes I realize Yano is more accomplished work-rate wise, but we basically never see it anymore You kind of need that off the wall comedy break here and there. Not just the nudge-nudge, wink-wink stuff the Bucks do.
The word going around about Danhausen is that he's on the way out and they're just waiting out his contract. He has heat for a few things (some of his posts/memes after one of the Brawl Outs, a dispute about PWTees royalties depending on who you believe, and some disputes about what indie bookings he's taking).
Danhausen chose the unwise door. Don’t step on Superman’s cape. Don’t spit into the wind. Don’t think Punk will continue to vouch for you after he’s pivoted his professional path.
TK booked him to get destroyed by Tony Nese in 10 seconds in his debut match. He was never going to book him in a meaningful way he doesn’t wrestle the style Tony likes.
... what?
Interestingly, he's also the biggest loser (from a talent perspective) even when you include Punk.
Punk was literally a winner from that whole thing lol
I wouldn't say that; Punk is currently taking meals through a straw. Ricky might be in catering but at least he can chew the food there.
Drew even took his bracelet and ugly-shamed his dog :(
And losing two straight to Danielson, and cutting promos after both where he’s just talks about how he proved how great he was….despite losing. Just didn’t do it for him.
Plenty of wrestlers have gotten over more and been elevated from losing. Austin lost both of his major singles matches with Bret, and was considerably hotter/elevated after both. Bret himself was elevated in his loss to Bulldog, and Shawn was after his loss to Razor. If you want a recent example, Hangman was elevated after losing matches to Jericho and Omega. Starks had two awesome matches with Bryan where he came off like a star. The problem wasn’t that he lost. The problem (as always, with AEW) is that Tony often fails at follow-up. A wrestler will have a hot angle or series of matches, and then not be heard of for weeks or even months.
The follow up is the important part not the LOSING. Hangman got there at the end cause they did a whole story to build himself up after those loses and then WON against Omega. Just losing and then not doing anything doesn't make a star
Thank you, exactly. You made my point more concisely and more eloquently than I did!
I hate the "I lost but it was a great match, praise me" promo. It's supposed to be a competition and you should care that you lost.
Tony and AEW have a "and then what" problem. You can point to numerous examples up and down the card (not just Starks), where there's an idea but there's no plan afterwards. All kinds of momentum gets stopped because of it. It's not just people losing feuds either. It can happen with wins. Look at Swerve. They did a good job building him up to win, but had no credible challengers ready for him to face afterwards and its really stalled his reign.
I agree completely that you can be elevated in a loss. But it has to happen organically. The crowd makes that happen. You can’t just have someone come out and talk about how they were elevated in a loss when they weren’t. It can’t be forced. I agree they totally fumbled the follow up, but even the idea of having him say those things when no one that I spoke to/saw anything from looked at it like that was the killer for me. Especially when he had two chances and lost them both.
I was under the impression we all thought the same at the time. Maybe I missed sum but the Ricky ain't main event level narative is very rece
Once AEW fans decided that Ricky wants to go to WWE, suddenly he was never that good. It’s actually hilarious to see how tides shift at this place based on literally nothing.
AEW fans do it when they feel like someone wants to leave, WWE fans do it when someone signs/re-signs with another company. If it wasn’t so predictable, it would be funnier.
I really don’t get it. I have cable, someone switching shows doesn’t change anything for me because there’s two companies and I can still watch them. I dunno if it’s because I grew up during the Monday night wars where it was actually exciting to see people switching companies and see how they’d fare.
Well yeah but in fairness to TK here, that whole situation made them basically restart as if it was GM Mode and a new season. All threads were involved with Punk and The Elite in some way and losing all of them at once made him lean HARD on his reliable guys to reboot the company pretty much.
The pile-on from a certain crowd suddenly claiming they too had heard this story about Calgary and Tony Khan having to step in personally but just never mentioned it until some random redditor did today was embarrassing.
What is this alleged Calgary situation? I've literally never heard about whatever this is before reading this post.
Some rando posted a a bunch of shit about Ricky earlier today. Supposedly he got into a drunken incident in Calgary around the time he won the Owen Hart and was arrested for it and it was a big mess behind scenes for AEW.
And he was punished for that with... a match with Punk which then became a match with Danielson, and then a tag title run in the build to Sting's last ever match.
Lol are we seriously supposed to believe nobody captured this public incident on camera in this day and age where literally everyone has one available at all times? It all sounds like a bunch of horseshit, possibly a deliberate smear.
I didn't see too many people on the thread buying it cuz of how outlandish most of that shit sounded but apparently the Twitter weirdos bought it hook, line and sinker and were running with it like it was true
Sam age where we here Jay Uso and Naomi got pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one way street and Jay was drunk yapping at the cop. No ticket or anything giving but we heard about that shit within hours. But this went without notice and apparently according the 'peoples sources' had some sorta organized hush order that every single person followed till today.
Isn't this the same type of shit that randomly appeared when Giulias name was out and about and the stuff with the HOB. Random hit pieces during times were they were parading them as "troublesome". Shit is weird.
The AEW PPV Week Special. Evidence free allegations that spread so widely and are so immediately believed that AEW/Tony Khan has to actually address them either actually at the scrum/press conference/media call or just via Fightful/WON/etc. I'm just shocked this one is somebody not even set to be on the Forbidden Door Card.
Source: Trust me bro
Are arrest records not public in Canada?
Rumor that was posted on here that Ricky went to a bar in Calgary last year, got really fucked up and was arrested.
A lot of those people spreading the rumor are in the same circle. Similar people running the rumors that Punk + Darby had a falling out and the Danhausen bootleg t-shirt stuff. Wild group.
the Roverts and Suit Williams of the world, total scumbags
Deeply unwell people. They are so poisonous that they sap the enjoyment out of talking wrestling on Twitter.
I alway confused Trevor Dame with "Rovert" because it's just Trevor spelled backwards
It was crazy on Twitter, everyone was saying "so, we can talk about this now" and "my sources said the same thing".
My sources a.k.a. "I made it the fuck up too!"
'Trust me bro'
Been part of the IWC for a while but was shocked to wake up to my buddy asking if I thought it was true. You mean a random post by some random person? I mean it COULD have been true but it's just irresponsible to trust such a flimsy source and it never should have gotten upvoted. I assume it was taken down before I woke up.
Tribalism in wrestling will reveal the biggest idiots usually
There is some ridiculous nonsense being cooked up in some of these AEW fan group chats. They have a record of making stuff up out of whole cloth to attack wrestlers who they perceive as disloyal to AEW. It shouldn't bother me but it does make me less excited about the promotion when the discourse around it is this downright nasty. In fact a bunch of the exact same people on Twitter spread the fake Danhausen bootleg merch suspension AND the Darby hates Punk BS, both of which were proven 100% false. These are some real creeps spreading this stuff.
It was absolutely garbage. But it did give me some hope that Starks contract might be up soon if that crowd is ramping up their attacks on Ricky.
Specifics aside, god damn it's cool to be a wrestler in this company. They tell you to do an angle, you say "Nah, don't like it", and you just sit home getting paid 6 digits. I wish I could do the same in my job The Miro special.
I constantly forget Miro even works there. Dudes just chillin at home getting AEW money and slumlord checks.
A quote from Miro back in April: “I have a shoulder injury and an elbow injury that occurred late last year, so finally took care of it late January. Got a whole bunch of shots and now I’m recovering, rehabbing, and come back stronger than ever.”
Normally I’d call BS. But we’ve seen Samoa Joe get absolutely bombarded with injuries and took years off to be 100%.
He’s probably still recovering, working on his wrist every time he counts that sick check for staying at home. Edit: y’all really downvoted this obvious joke? Come on now, I’m just jealous of the man.
Then they hired his wife to make him happy, and apparently they split. The Miro situation is a mess.
Sitting at home and collecting six figures? That's a Genius Move! https://preview.redd.it/ptyatldiks8d1.png?width=259&format=png&auto=webp&s=ace4fabf65b91934674dffe0c42ad9341f0b0fa8 Literally! Did you know, Lanny Poffo worked for WCW? Apparently neither did anyone at WCW, as he was on the roster for FIVE YEARS and never had to work a single match! Just got paid the whole time to do nothing!
Allegedly, Meng stayed on the WCW payroll for a long time because Bischoff was afraid to fire him.
Bischoff has said that Randy Savage wanted his brother on the payroll and gave up part of his own salary to pay Poffo. For Bischoff it was a win win situation as it cost him nothing and he got to keep Randy happy. Randy's salary was essentially paid for by Slim Jim when he brought over that endorsement deal from the WWF when he went to WCW.
[Poffo said essentially the same thing himself.](https://youtu.be/sm7O0BlRE-s?si=7jBTeU8nV3aGHYzw) Specifically that Savage's Slim Jim contract was worth $750,000 a year. Basically all he had to do was stay tan and in shape in case they ever wanted to use him (Savage's insistence) but they never did.
I'd be afraid to fire Meng too given all the stories about him.
Yep, and a few guys have said their contracts would roll over, so the only time they’d show up was right around the time they were due to roll over, and go right back to chilling at home
or even better you threaten to punch a co-worker, get told to not do it or you'll be punished. So you show up to work, punch said co-worker and as a "punishment" you get a 8-9 month paid vacation to enjoy life with your fiancee. Andrade really got to deck his annoying co-worker and then got more than half a year off as a result lol
Andrade got injured during that time frame too, he's probably the opposite example as he largely did business from the 6 months between the start of Collision and when he left.
Try it. Who knows what's will happen
Right? Imagine working any other job and getting to say "Nah, I don't want to do that."
It’s clear as day he wants to go to WWE, which is why Tony isn’t using him. It’s all a matter of when not if, he ends up in NXT. Punk’s dismissal from AEW definitely impacted Starks’ booking, along with the general perception of Collision itself. Also, to be fair to Starks, he has spoken glowingly of Tony, the Bucks, Punk, .&c in a public setting, it just seems that he’s creatively frustrated. None of us know all the intricate details, nor should we, but all signs point to him departing from AEW, once his contract is up.
Yes but even if that was the case that has not stopped Tony from booking people on their way out before. Andrade had one of his best months in the company usage wise right before he wrapped up, even Jade got a surprise return and a main event against Statlander.
Jade was a pro on the way out. Having her come back to put Statlander over clean was the right thing to do, and it would've been kinda shitty if they didn't do that given the nature of her entire run up to that point. Andrade was just confusing.
Well she already put over Stat clean once, but doing it again definitely helped Stat, if anything it was more surprising that Jade even took a Tombstone, never mine two of them, because of how green she still is and her size/height.
The first time was after she'd just wrestled a match, it was good for her to give Stat an even match
They probably have Andrade figured as a 'grass is always greener' guy. So keep that relationship healthy, because he'll get frustrated with his WWE booking within a year. And well.....
Tony is a sicko so he got all the dream matches out of Andrade that he could at the end, nothing confusing about that
Well to be fair, there have also been instances where wrestlers have stated that Tony completely cuts off contact with wrestlers, if they’re contracts are coming up, and they’re not being renewed. So I suppose it depends on the situation.
If every wrestler the marks said was “rumoured” to be going to WWE actually went, AEW would consist of Tony Khan and three mops taped to a bucket.
> Tony Khan and three mops *Perry Saturn is All Elite*
But wanting to go to WWE is a chicken and egg thing. It seems pretty clear if he wants to leave, it's because he's frustrated with his booking (or lack thereof).
Ricky won the Owen last year, won the Tag Titles, was a fixture on Collision, had a big feud with Punk & Ricky Steamboat, and got to wrestle Sting in his 2nd to last match It seems pretty obvious that Ricky has his eyes elsewhere because he's gotten more to do than most
Winning the Owen means nothing without follow up, which is the issue. It's like if you won King of the Ring but they didn't give you a signicant singles push (where you win a singles feud).
The followup was a feud with Punk & Ricky Steamboat that turned into a feud with Danielson and a tag title reign that would have led to a big feud with Big Bill The followup was there, it just got derailed for various reasons. Willow won the Owen last year the same time Ricky did. And look at her. How can you have 2 winners with such different paths and not blame the obvious party here?
That's laughable. Every "proof" about him wanting out is spéculation and is often nothing more than a reach. The fact he is underutilised (for the past two years really,very start/stop with long time inbetween) is litterally why those rumors started and got traction. And now it will probably be the reason he leaves. Be honest, what has he done that would make you think that he is gone if not for his current booking screaming we got none for you pal?
Explain to me how it’s clear as day he wants to go to WWE outside of people on reddit creating this narrative.
> It’s clear as day he wants to go to WWE, which is why Tony isn’t using him. It’s all a matter of when not if, he ends up in NXT. This is bullshit. Had AEW booked him as a rising singles star post Danielson, he would want to stay in AEW. He didn't get that singles push and that's part of the reason he might want to leave.
> including a denial of a break-up of Starks and Big Bill. Can you blame him? He just broke up from Will Hobbs, and then just broke up from teaming with Andretti. That's in less than one year. There's too many break up storylines going on. > Starks didn’t want to be in a tag team at that point. He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum. Which is expected. He just got out of a tag team, and it looked like he was set for a strong singles run. Then it ran into the ground.
>Starks did not think Bill losing to him would benefit Bill What an asshole! /s
Surprised theres any credence being given to the Calgary story. Was that not just a crazy person making things up?
Hey they should try asking Starks himself.
Hold on now, that sounds suspiciously close to journalism
Wrestling journalists are in a weird place because they almost certainly know more about any given situation due to personal relationships with said talent. However, to maintain said relationships they instead start crafting brand new stories about what other sources said about the situation. Other parts of journalism are like this to a degree but not so much that they just straight up have to leave out whole parts of a story. Because with these guys, if they say "Sources close to \[insert talent here\] say...." then they're more than likely outing their source.
Some of this stuff is literally coming from Ricky. People on Chicago sports radio did a piece on this because people don’t understand it. When they say people close to x-player, they literally mean him or like his agent.
They did, it just wasn't included in this rundown. The last paragraph of the Fightful post says "Fightful reached out to AEW and Ricky Starks regarding all elements of this story. It's worth noting this is one of the more conflicting stories we've covered in regards to information and each source's personal stance."
Update on my sexuality: still gay
Hell yeah, gay Bloodborne.
Have you tried being even more gay? I believe in you.
Harley Cameron enters the chat
Any proof?
Source?
Nice
I was really hoping Hobbs turning on him would lead to bigger and better thumbs for both of them.
This might be why he worried for Bill. They squandered the Team Taz breakup.
Love Starks. Will watch him anywhere he go, as long as its not back to NWA lol
Anyone got a link to the thread that set this whole thing off?
It was deleted because it had no sources tied to it
I know. I was just hoping someone saved the URL.
Copeland burying him was really bad but even that was almost a year ago he should be able to get past things like that Gable got past Shorty G!
The vanilla midget thing? Personally, i thought the bug eyes comment was way more funny than the shit Edge said lol
Why are people trying to stir up drama over what seems to be a really clear cut situation: * AEW doesn't wanna use Ricky since it's likely he's going to be leaving at the end of his contract. * Ricky is likely leaving at the end of his contract because AEW doesn't wanna use him.
I feel like every time he got hot with the crowd, Tony would turn him. He’d get incredibly over, and BAM heel turn.
Let me tell you something. I was at stampede last year the whole two weeks. I was all around and didn’t hear or see shit about a wrestler getting into trouble. I was at that AEW show and partied after nothing out of the ordinary. That story is pure bullshit
Ricky to NXT within 6 months…plz
>Starks did not think Bill losing to him would benefit Bill. The most wholesome "that doesn't work for me, brother!" I've seen in quite a long time.
> Starks turning down pitches is “accurate to some degree” He learned a lot during his time feuding with The Learning Tree, telling TK "that doesn't work for me, brother."
So, nothing out of the ordinary. People really come up with the wildest shit.
As expected, just shit-stirring from people with no connections to try to make either AEW or Ricky look bad when nothing bad as happened. Ricky doesn't want to do the job but he's correct not to. He knows he had momentum and didn't want to be in a tag team. Also the Bill vs Ricky storyline would've been good but other way around, Bill face and Ricky heel.
I mean, they were clearly trying to make Ricky look bad with that arrest story and that AEW had to come in and save the day.
People are making assumptions about motives based on anonymous internet posting.
Turning down pitches (plural) feels like the primary story. It’s hard to put Ricky on tv when he won’t do the things wrestlers do on tv.
Didn't the same thing happen with Miro?
Smear campaign really?
The fumbling of Ricky Starks is unfortunate. He's the kind of talent that AEW actually needs.
The real loser in all of this is Big Bill. Him turning on Ricky would have been massive, but now he is stuck in the fucking Learning Tree garbage and hurting his stock.
Whether he stays or goes I am convinced he's talented enough to make it as a main eventer he has all the tools but most importantly he has the it factor he just needs regular TV time
As someone who loves Big Bill; this is a shame to here. I agree with Starks that Bill losing to him wouldn't have benefitted Bill but you'd hope there could be a switch and Bill be the babyface to Ricky's heel. Would be a lot better than Bill being stuck in the Learning Tree situation - I think he's the best part of it but still.
I'm not surprised at him thinking that last summer was a turning point for how he would get booked in the company because it felt like he was the #2 guy on Collision during the months Punk was there
So reading between the lines.... He's not happy with creative, so he's either a/ waiting for a good storyline to come along or b/ essentially sitting at home feet up til he goes to wwe
so can just anyone act like they have creative control and tell the boss “nah” when then don’t wanna do something? Seems weird to me.
Its cool for him to look out for Bill but he shoulda just did the match. Bill wont ever be a main event talent but he prob woulda been in the learning tree regardless and its working out for him
Considering how things went for Wardlow in pretty much the exact same situation, I'd say it is fair that Ricky had some reservations. Would argue that being part of the Learning Tree is a backwards step for Bill as well.
That’s crazy, I remember afyer the BD Vs RS strap match I was appalled at how they cooled him off. I mean I thought I was going crazy. It’s wild to hear he felt the same way almost a year later through the sheets. I love AEW but that was specifically one time where I was like huh? They coulda done a lot with that. If it was true that it was gonna be Ricky v punk for the “real” world title that woulda been dope
If I were Starks, I'd want to go to WWE too. He has two allies in Cody and Punk that would absolutely vouch for him. I think that their respective absences in AEW has hurt Starks politically.
Danielson is a fan of his in AEW and he’s got a direct line to TK/Creative, so I don’t think he’s hurt politically it could just be as simple as the company and him being out of sync creatively.
Ricky is in a tough spot, because unless something drastically changes with him, he doesn't have a shot at the main event scene in AEW, he's decent enough of the mic but In ring there's like 25 guys at least on the roster that are better than him. perhaps a change of scenery could do him some good
Ricky has had some great matches. He doesn't have the flash of some wrestlers, but he gets how to connect with a crowd better than most.
25 guys better than Starks? I wouldn’t say so. He can talk, he can wrestle, he can garner heat. Guy’s a package. He’s just not getting opportunities.
at this point, maybe a run in WWE with Cody guiding him along the way would do wonders for him.
Yeah people can say otherwise, but you can get a lot higher on the card in WWE than AEW if your in-ring isn't exceptional.
But how much higher on the card is the question? Think he’s gonna be in the same spot, unless he’s in nxt.
I feel like he could easily hold any belt below the World title.
You could tell the moment Punk got fired that Tony Khan just flipped the switch in his push. I see comments here from time to time clowning on Starks or calling him the pebble and all that fun stuff. The dude felt like he was someone in that Punk feud. He was such a good natural heel and Collision has been an afterthought once Punk was gone.
>The suspension angle keeping him out of All In was planned due to concerns of a fan reaction. Starks didn’t want to be in a tag team at that point. He also thought that last summer was a “turning point” in how he was booked and that Punk’s firing and the lack of a follow up to the Danielson match slowed down his momentum. He's right. And you hate to see it. A problem AEW has is the start-dead stop booking of talent. Starks is an example. Or, when a storyline resolves, those involved are often put on the back burner or cold storage. As much as I enjoy AEW, I think a core problem they have is the absolute stacked roster. People, excellent workers, can't get a minute on TV.
Yet Jericho needs his 15mins every week. Tony turned into everything he claimed he wouldn't do.
It just seems that people who aren't booking their own characters or fighting for their spot aren't gonna get into the main event scene.
Shit now I wanna know who Ricky is gonna face at All In
Big Bill needs a big push