While many people thought Ricky Starks was signed to an AEW contract immediately following his match with Cody Rhodes on AEW Dynamite, he wasn’t offered the contract until the show actually aired on TNT, according to a report from Fightful. This was a week later as the broadcast was taped. Tony Khan called him after his match aired on Dynamite and offered him an official contract. Starks also said Arn Anderson contacted him to say that he was very lucky.
Also, the facepaint gimmick was Starks’ idea and he pitched it directly to Tony Khan.