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Ricky Starks made his AEW debut in June, coming out to answer Cody Rhodes' open challenge for the TNT Championship. Despite losing the match, Starks was so impressive on his debut that AEW quickly offered him a contract and signed him up. Starks has been impressive since signing with AEW and is currently ranked 5th in the men's rankings.
Ricky Starks on WWE contacting him soon after his AEW debut
Ricky Starks was recently a guest on the Chris Van Vliet Show. During the interview, Starks discussed his AEW debut against Cody. The Team Taz member also revealed how WWE contacted him, soon after his AEW debut. Starks chose to sign with AEW and spoke about how advice from a close friend helped him put things in perspective:
The funny thing is, the day that I wrestled Cody I got a phone call from WWE saying 'Hey, we've been watching you and we wanted to bring you in'. I said 'Oh really? oh ok. Interesting. Of all days'. And so I entertained that conversation because I was curious but I think I knew already which decision I was going to make. And I had a very dear, great friend tell me once: you should look at the people who want to invest in you and not know anything about you as opposed to the people who only wanted you when they saw someone else having interest. So that put things in perspective and I don't hold any ill will towards WWE but I really think they dropped the ball majorly on that. I'll never know why and I guess I don't care now.
Ricky Starks is currently a part of Team Taz in AEW. Starks and Brian Cage beat Darby Allin and Cody in the main event of last week's episode of Dynamite. Following the match, it looked like Will Hobbs had come out with a steel chair to drive Starks and Cage away. However, he ended up turning on Cody and smashing him with the steel chair, revealing his alleigance to Team Taz.
Team Taz have put the AEW roster on notice and it will be interesting to see what happens next.
