Ricky Starks makes mammoth claim about uncomfortable AEW moment with Adam Copeland

Starks still hasn
Starks still hasn't returned to action (Image credit: Ricky Starks on X/Twitter)

AEW star Ricky Starks has been off television for most of 2024. His situation is murky, with reports circulating that his contract will expire next year and speculation swirling that he'll make the jump to WWE. The Absolute star recently addressed another hot topic: his controversial promo segment with WWE Hall of Famer Adam Copeland.

Starks and Copeland met in the ring to exchange insults on an episode of AEW Collision in October 2023. Ricky Starks famously called The Rated-R Superstar "bug eyes," and Copeland responded by calling Starks a "vanilla midget" and a ripoff of The Rock.

Starks addressed the promo and its fallout in a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. He confirmed that he didn't go off-script because there was no script. The 34-year-old also criticized Adam Copeland's cliché insults:

"You might as well call me a great heel because I got somebody so flustered on live TV that they stumbled and stuttered their way into one of the worst insults that you could say; that’s so passe, so 2000. A vanilla midget?" said Starks.

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The former AEW World Tag Team Champion further claimed that Copeland was the one who looked bad in that promo segment:

"Personally, I don’t think that Ricky Starks came out of that looking very bad, you know what I’m saying? I think it wasn’t me that looked bad in that whole situation and so it is what it is." [H/T Wrestling Observer]
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New details on Ricky Starks' contract situation

Rumors circulated after Ricky Starks' disappearance from television that he had turned down pitches from AEW's creative team. Speculation later surfaced that he was being punished for visiting Cody Rhodes at WWE Royal Rumble 2023.

Unfortunately, it's still unclear whether any of these rumors are true, and according to Starks himself in his interview with Chris Van Vliet, even he doesn't know. However, a new report has shed some light on the 34-year-old's contract situation.

According to Fightful Select, AEW had the option to extend Ricky Starks' contract earlier this year. With the assumption that the company did just that, the report notes that Starks will likely be signed with All Elite Wrestling until the spring or summer of 2025.

Despite reports of Starks having little contact with the company over the last several months, he was spotted backstage at the Full Gear pay-per-view this past weekend. This may provide a spark of hope for fans who want to see the 34-year-old return to television.

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Edited by Ken Cameron
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