Ricky Starks made his AEW debut in June by answering Cody Rhodes’ TNT Championship Open Challenge. During an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Starks reveals that he got a phone call from WWE almost immediately after the match.
This wasn’t Starks’ first communication with WWE. He previously worked as an extra on television and had a tryout back in 2017, but doesn’t believe he was close to being signed. “I don’t think I was close at all and I’ll never understand why,” he began. I love wrestling. I’ve never played any sports, I never did anything, I only watched wrestling. And I have immersed myself and become obsessed with it and I love it to death.”
Ricky Starks On WWE Contacting Him After Cody Rhodes Match
Later in the interview, Starks talked about WWE contacting him after his match against Cody this summer.
“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,” Starks said.
“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.”
Chris Van Vliet’s full interview with Ricky Starks can be viewed in the player below.