Ricky Starks told What Culture last month that he has no idea why he isn’t on AEW television and that the situation is beyond his control. In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com reported that Starks’ tag team partner Big Bill has joined forces with “The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho.
“At one point there was a plan to have Big Bill turn on Starks and make him a babyface but that didn’t end up happening. One report was that it was his decision, but the only thing is that it didn’t happen.”
Fightful.com provided more information about Starks’ creative pitch. Starks allegedly did not believe that Bill would benefit from losing a feud with him and preferred an amicable split.
This week, a Reddit post titled “Ricky Starks Drama” went viral, making the following claim about Starks:
“Surprised this isn’t out there but last year after the Owen Hart Cup Ricky Starks got absolutely hammered in a Calgary bar, wound up starting a fight and leaving the establishment in a cop car. 100% real and witnessed by human eyes… if anyone wants to dig for it, they’ll find it… Apparently a big pain in the ass Tony Khan had to deal with personally….. In case anyone is wondering why he’s not going back to Calgary this year! Also, on the “why is he not on TV??” front… He’s turning down pitches or not even listening to pitches. The guy lost control of the right side of his body on live tv so that he needed to take a pin and eliminate himself from that tag tournament right away and is out here doing the obligatory “I’m fine and cleared! dunno why I’m not on tv, would love to contribute” stuff leaving out the fact that he’s taken calls just to tell ppl “I’m busy right now’ (out drinking) and ignore their pitches. Bill and Ricky were meant to have a whole breakup story and feud coming out of it that honestly probably would have been good for both of them, but instead Ricky is at home and we’ve got the Learning Tree. OH WELL.”
Many insiders at AEW deny knowing about the Calgary story, according to Fightful, and AEW declined to comment in an official capacity. Fightful went on to say that Starks claimed he was never in legal trouble in Canada, and everyone he spoke with about the alleged incident claimed it never happened.
There is currently no word on when Starks will return to AEW programming.
