New Developments on Ricky Starks' AEW Status Amid Internet Rumors

Last month, Ricky Starks told WhatCulture.com that he doesn’t know why he’s not on AEW television and said things are out of his control. Starks’ tag team partner Big Bill has now aligned with “The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho. In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted:

“At one point there was a plan to have Big Bill turn on Starks and make him a babyface but that didn’t end up happening. One report was that it was his decision, but the only thing is that it didn’t happen.”

Fightful.com provided more details regarding the creative pitch for Starks. Starks allegedly didn’t think that Bill losing a feud to him would be beneficial to Bill and believed it was best to have an amicable split if anything.

This week, a Reddit post titled “Ricky Starks Drama” went viral with the following claim:

“Surprised this isn’t out there but last year after the Owen Hart Cup Ricky Starks got absolutely hammered in a Calgary bar, wound up starting a fight and leaving the establishment in a cop car. 100% real and witnessed by human eyes… if anyone wants to dig for it, they’ll find it… Apparently a big pain in the ass Tony Khan had to deal with personally….. In case anyone is wondering why he’s not going back to Calgary this year! Also, on the “why is he not on TV??” front… He’s turning down pitches or not even listening to pitches. The guy lost control of the right side of his body on live tv so that he needed to take a pin and eliminate himself from that tag tournament right away and is out here doing the obligatory “I’m fine and cleared! dunno why I’m not on tv, would love to contribute” stuff leaving out the fact that he’s taken calls just to tell ppl “I’m busy right now’ (out drinking) and ignore their pitches. Bill and Ricky were meant to have a whole breakup story and feud coming out of it that honestly probably would have been good for both of them, but instead Ricky is at home and we’ve got the Learning Tree. OH WELL.”

According to Fightful, numerous AEW sources deny ever hearing about the Calgary story and AEW did not issue a comment in an official capacity. Fightful added that Starks himself claimed he was never in legal trouble in Canada and everyone spoken to that was named in relation to the alleged incident claim that it didn’t occur whatsoever.

At this time, there is no word on when Starks will return to AEW programming.

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— Ben Kerin Jun 25, 2024 09:03PM