Former AEW star Ricky Starks, now known as Ricky Saints in WWE NXT, recently shared his thoughts on his time in Tony Khan’s promotion. Before his departure, AEW kept him off television for nearly eleven months, with his last match taking place in March 2024.
A few weeks ago, reports confirmed that AEW had granted Saints his release. Following the news, he made a surprise debut on WWE NXT last week to a massive ovation. This week, during his contract signing, it was revealed that he would now go by the name Ricky Saints in WWE.
Ricky Saints recently appeared on Busted Open Radio with Bully Ray, where he admitted that he couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment when things went wrong in AEW but acknowledged that CM Punk’s exit may have played a role.
He stated, “I can’t tell you exactly what the moment was. You could say it was Punk leaving, and things kinda fell apart. Absolutely, I probably agree with you on that, alright? Or you could say that Ricky didn’t play the politics well enough. Alright, for sure… there’s so many things you can say. What I can say for myself is that when I got hurt in March, that was it. I never came back. And even then, I wasn’t hurt; it was a precautionary thing where I got scared because I had a stinger.”
He continued, “Then I was fine. After that, no dice. No communication. Nothing. And that is okay because I ended up here. And it’s fine. Everything worked out. I don’t know explicitly where it went wrong, I can’t point to one thing. I can say it was a storm of things, probably. Did I do something that may have tipped them off? Sure. Asking for my release this past whatever—that could have been it, right? But never once was I not willing to do something. Never once was I sabotaging anything.”
Ricky Saints claims AEW veterans “stuck their nose” in his storylines
Ricky Saints opened up about his AEW departure and revealed that certain veterans interfered in his creative direction. He stated, “I will say this: there are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn’t have. Veterans. And that’s it. I’ll leave it at that. And if they got a problem with me, they got my number. They can text me about it.”
Saints continued, “I think what it was is if it didn’t work for their creative, then someone had to get the boot. That’s how I see it. But I’m not trying to be negative in my thought process about it. If you want to step on me to get ahead in your illustrious career—everyone has an illustrious career. Everyone should have an illustrious career. That is perfectly fine. But at the same time, I’m not wet behind my ears.”
Although Saints didn’t name any veterans, he clearly wants to move on from his time in AEW. As he starts a new chapter in WWE NXT, he will compete in tag team action next week.
