Posted By James Walsh on 11/26/24
AEW star Ricky Starks, who hasn’t been on television for most of 2024, did an interview with Chris Van Vliet and here are the highlights courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com…
On being absent from AEW: “March was my last match. I’ve been home, I’ve been healthy. Never was injured. I did have a stinger. I got a stinger in that match against Top Flight in March. I got immediately checked out and everything was fine, but I was just concerned at the time. So that happened and then I was just home. That’s kind of where it’s been at. I’ve just been home. It’s kind of a mindf*ck because I’m in my prime and it sucks when you’re on such a momentum, riding the wave, doing work and doing stuff, and then to just be at home for so long, you’re kind of like, whoa. It kind of throws it off. I am not meant to be at home. I’m not meant to be a homebody in this current phase in my life. I’m not meant to be just chilling at home and doing not the thing that I’ve been busting my ass to do for the past 13 years.”
On why he has been absent: “Beats me. I could have 1,000 theories about what’s really going on. The fact of the matter is that if I don’t have a definitive answer, I can’t just make up an answer for people and just assume. Would I love to know the exact reason? For sure. Do I have speculations about why? Absolutely. But that does nothing to speak on things that I speculate, does nothing for the situation. So I think it’s just a matter of, it sucks, it’s been a very cold day here in Austin. It’s been a very cold day. May have been cold for the past nine months, not sure. But thankfully, I have a sweater, and I’m always ready to keep the warmth going.”
On being missed by fans: “It’s incredible. I get so many messages from people who are like, Hey, we don’t know what’s happening. We don’t know what’s going on, but we miss you. We hope that you’re mentally okay. Obviously I would love to give an answer of what’s a definitive answer, and I still maintain the truth of this, I have no clue. I have no clue. So I already know this is gonna go up in flames too, but yeah, I love the fact that fans still care. All I know is this, regardless, I’m always gonna end up better than my situation. I’m always gonna end up better than the circumstances that I’m currently in. That’s just how it works for me. I can’t lose.”
On if he thinks he is being punished: “I don’t think that’s ever crossed my mind of like you’re being punished, because that wouldn’t serve me at all to think like that. I would be depressed and angry. That wouldn’t serve me.”
On being seen backstage with Cody Rhodes at the Royal Rumble: “You know what’s so funny about that whole situation? First off, yes, I did go see a friend of mine for his match, obviously, because it was an hour away. Secondly, they caught me walking to the bus. So like, Okay. Third off, somebody who worked at Alamo decided to take a video, take that screenshot, and then post it. I remember the next day, Sunday, I woke up and this whole thing was blowing up. I was like what is this? I had people from my job, I had one guy who was like ‘Were you at the Rumble last night?’ I said ‘Yeah and what the f*ck about it?’ He goes ‘Just saying that’s a bad look.’ How is it a bad look? I can’t control somebody taking security footage while I am walking to a bus, I don’t control that. Tell me how that is a bad look. We got people on our own program talking about people in the other company, but me having my security footage exposed is a bad look? Give me a break! It was simply visiting a friend. I was only on the bus. I stayed on the bus. I wasn’t trying to cause any type of issues or anything like that. The whole purpose was I was walking to the bus so I wouldn’t be seen by anybody.”
On being in attendance at WrestleMania 40: “You know who else was in the box with me? Dustin, QT Marshall, Aaron Solo. This is not me putting them on blast. This is just saying yes, there’s people in the box. There’s footage of me celebrating. There was no issue about that. There was no issue at all. Only because before I had went Tony already said, Hey, it’s okay. So like, there was no issue. Now, if he actually didn’t mean that, okay, I don’t know, that’s different. But there was no issue about that and I still, to this day, don’t see a problem with it. I’m gonna tell you why. I got into this because I am a fan. I love professional wrestling. Regardless of where I work, I’m going to go and support people that I love, and I’m gonna go support wrestling in general. I was there to watch Jade’s first Mania match and was extremely proud. I saw her match, and then I was there to see Cody’s match. Guess what? I was at Mania the year before that and saw Cody lose. There is no issue with somebody being at another show. Jay Z ain’t gonna go to another rapper’s concert? He ain’t gonna go to a J Cole concert? It’s only blown up online because people are trying to get paid for their engagement, they got rent due, I always make that joke. It’s people who just want to start something. You could say it’s the tribalistic fans, I don’t necessarily agree with that, to a certain extent yeah. I remember seeing some quote tweets about how I was dick riding Cody because I was there, and I was just like, wow, this is amazing, because if you took this situation out of the scope of wrestling, people would think it’s normal. But supposedly, for some reason, it is so taboo to not be over here when you work [for another company]. Who cares? We all getting paid, aren’t we?”