On February 10, 2025, Ricky Starks’s time with All Elite Wrestling officially came to an end. A full calendar year earlier, he’d taken the pin in Sting’s penultimate career match, losing the AEW World Tag Team titles that he held with Big Bill. Starks would have exactly one more match with AEW, at the end of March 2024, then he was essentially benched for the foreseeable future.
Fast forward to February 11, 2025, when AEW held a Dynamite television taping at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas, the same building that first saw Starks’s true potential as a premier singles star back in 2022 when he matched wits and wallops with then-AEW World champion MJF. The Tuesday night taping was to assist with travel, as AEW’s Grand Slam event in Australia was scheduled for later that week. So, for live attendees, AEW’s Dynamite and WWE’s NXT were happening at the same time, and what started as whispers turned into shoulder taps that led to people turning all the way around to deliver the news to those sitting behind them, which eventually led to one random fan at the Dynamite taping yelling out, “RICKY STARKS JUST SHOWED UP ON NXT!”
Like many of NXT’s best moments, from barbershop confessionals to regaining one’s smile, Ricky’s debut would borrow from NXT creative head Shawn Michaels’s past. This time, it was reminiscent of Michaels’s late friend and Kliq colleague Scott Hall, who had a similarly shocking debut on WCW television shortly after one of pro wrestling’s flashpoints, the 1996 “Curtain Call.” Likewise, Starks showed up through the crowd, and at the time, NXT announcers would not address him by name. He did, however, state why he was there: to once more televise the revolution.
While he may have lost time, the newly dubbed Ricky Saints (a tribute to his hometown of New Orleans) is still just as passionate about professional wrestling as he ever was, and intends to use his brand new platform to reach brand new heights.
Before making headlines as WWE’s hottest 2025 acquisition, 2023 appeared to be Ricky Starks’s year. He went toe-to-toe with AEW’s top act in verbal combat and looked impressive despite his in-ring defeat. However, public perception and unwritten rules placed Starks in a position where he had to defend things that wouldn’t normally require defending. Cody Rhodes, one of Starks’s best friends in the industry and a key figure in getting him on national television, was slated to win the WWE’s 2023 Royal Rumble. Starks made the hour-and-a-half drive from his home in Austin, Texas, down I-35 to San Antonio to support Rhodes. To avoid any undue tension or rumors, he entered and exited through one of the Alamodome’s loading docks, ensuring that only Rhodes knew he was there. However, when grainy security footage of Starks walking alongside the future WrestleMania main eventer leaked to the public, questions about loyalty and future plans began to circulate. Fans and coworkers expressed their concerns about the optics, with one person bluntly telling him that it was “a bad look.” To say it annoyed him is an understatement; Ricky can’t fathom not supporting the people he values at any level. “I just think that having people around you that get you, that understand you, that rock with you, you need that. You need that. And if you don't have it … what are we doing? What are we doing in life?” Attending that event seemed to affect Starks’s push, as his involvement in AEW’s main-event scene decreased throughout the winter and spring.
Over WrestleMania weekend in 2023, rumors leaked that the rift between the Elite and CM Punk in AEW would lead to the launch of a second weekly television show, this one built specifically around Punk. This ultimately became AEW Collision, the Saturday night show that focused on fewer acts than the more robust Dynamite. With Punk and FTR as the principal acts, there was room for a new foil, and Ricky Starks was once again positioned to rise as a top competitor. “I ran with that,” Starks explains, “but I never thought of it like this main-billing guy.” Ricky preferred to look at Collision as a way for him to “hold my weight as much as I can to make this [as] successful, if not more, [than] the other show. To have two shows is great. And that was the goal.”
He initially teamed with CMFTR, but later defeated Punk in singles competition, using the ropes for leverage to win the Owen Hart Cup. Later that summer, he challenged Punk for his “real World Championship” (Punk had to relinquish the official AEW World title due to injury, but would make the physical belt—which he never gave up—Collision’s top title). With his impressive matches against Punk, intense interactions with Ricky Steamboat, and the AEW fan base eager for their own homegrown star, Starks felt primed and prepped for success.
Punk appeared to see the same thing Tony Khan and Cody Rhodes had seen in Starks years earlier: that drive to perform at the highest level every time out. “Maybe you recognize someone's passion that they have and they go, ‘Oh, OK, there's something that can be done with this.’ I think that goes a long way,” Saints says.
The Punk-vs.-Elite conflict reached its climax at AEW’s 2023 All In pay-per-view, where a backstage fight between Punk and Jack Perry resulted in Punk’s firing. Collision would shift its focus to Bryan Danielson as its centerpiece, with Starks again playing chief antagonist. But with his retirement looming, Danielson would be maximized as AEW champion, primarily on Dynamite. Once more, outside forces seemed to stall Starks out.
After losing the tag team titles to Sting and Darby Allin, Starks had one more match in AEW, teaming with Big Bill in a loss to Top Flight. A week later, rumors of him jumping ship to WWE reached new levels, with Starks being seen in a suite at WrestleMania XL, emphatically supporting Rhodes’s championship aspirations while also attending his close friend Jade Cargill’s WrestleMania debut. Despite sharing that suite with AEW coworker and Cody’s brother, Dustin Rhodes, it was Starks who became the focus of the fan’s ire. Despite Starks and Khan mutually expressing their willingness to continue working together, he’d never appear on AEW television again. Being under contract but unable to compete was especially tough for Starks, who views wrestling as more than just a job, but a canvas to constantly paint new pictures on. “I have to do things,” he admits. “For me, at least, fulfillment comes from actually making art, doing art, and actually being the person that makes something and then puts it out there. And so when you don't have that opportunity to do that, so to speak, my fulfillment is stalled out. I need that. That's how everything operates for me. I think that was the toughest part. It reminded me [of] when I had my neck injury and I couldn't wrestle. I was going crazy because I couldn't do the one thing that I love to do.”
Ricky did his best to stay active and interested during the period when he wasn’t on AEW TV, traveling across America and Europe in his free time. Ricky was super selective with his wrestling dates, only competing a handful of times outside of AEW. There was almost a mystique around Starks, the healthy, passionate, willing wrestler with online rumors constantly swirling about his intentions. But what he found offline was that the people who really wanted to see him weren’t concerned with what banner he was under—they just wanted to see one of their favorites back in action. “I remember going to House of Glory and doing the meet-and-greet and had so many people tell me, ‘I just want to see you happy. I just want to see you on TV again. I just want to see you,’” Ricky said. One moment that sticks out was during an appearance for Defy, a promotion where he’d win and relinquish their world title without ever getting to defend it, when he recognized a sign in the crowd from an AEW date he did in Seattle. “I remember just really crying because I was so moved by these people, and they didn't understand at the time why it meant so much.” It was that moment when Ricky realized that the oftentimes deafening chatter you read online pales in comparison to being in front of a live audience, to the reciprocal energy being transmitted during his matches.
Less than a month after that House of Glory appearance, fans got their wish, as the freshly minted Ricky Saints once again became a televised wrestling mainstay. In a whirlwind 24 hours, he went from unemployed to being the talk of the industry. “It was a very quick turnaround. People think that was days in advance,” he says. “I had never spoken to WWE at all before any of that. I never got on the phone with anyone before that, blah, blah, blah. So all of that, when I say it happened so fast, it happened so fast and it never let up off the gas.” He’d receive congratulations from peers new and old. “Obviously, Cody and Jade and Allie [Katch], those people,” Ricky shares, also saying that he “had some personnel people text me from AEW, too.” Immediately thrust into the jungle that is NXT, Saints did his best to figure out the lay of the land. More Fallout than Friendly’s, he’d entered an ecosystem that was cold and cutthroat, leading him to ask on multiple occasions why everyone was so upset. The other wrestlers would spurn his appearances, both acknowledging his past success while never really ingratiating themselves with him. NXT showcased his strengths; his time on NWA Powerrr highlighted how well he was at delivering promos, but the glitz and glamour of WWE showcased the complete package, from his keen sense of style to the impact of his high-octane tornado DDT.
Ricky’s contract signing was an example of the confidence that many had seen in him early on, with the commentary team dubbing him the biggest free agent on the market. His first win in NXT, teaming with Je’Von Evans to defeat Wes Lee and Ethan Page, proved he could match the intensity and athleticism of WWE’s highly touted future stars. Ricky would go on to win the NXT North American Championship from former AEW foe/friend Shawn Spears on April 1, and could be defending that title against another man from his past, Ethan Page, at NXT’s annual WrestleMania weekend PLE, Stand & Deliver. He’s quickly acclimated to the pace, presence, and chaos Orlando provides, and doesn’t plan to rest on his laurels. “My aspirations in AEW were to just be given a chance and given the ball fully. I want that in WWE, obviously,” Ricky admits, adding “I want the WWE Championship, but along the way, the Intercontinental title would be great.” For the time being, he’ll enjoy his friend Rhodes’s year-long WWE Championship reign while appreciating where he is on his journey.
From limbo to the limelight, Ricky Saints is back in position to prove the passion he’s so eager to showcase. Whether he’s checking someone on the mic, making the front row swoon over his high-wire walk (a tribute to his favorite wrestler, the Undertaker), or spearing a challenger out of their boots, he’s doing it all on 10, every single time out. We may never know just who Ricky Starks could have been, but the future is looking bright for Ricky Saints.
Cameron Hawkins writes about pro wrestling, Blade II, and obscure ’90s sitcoms for Yahoo Sports’ Uncrowned and Complex. You can follow him on Twitter at @CeeHawk.