Ricky Saints Relinquishes DEFY Championship

As is often the case with new WWE signings, an independent promotion has fallen victim to a top champion needing to relinquish a championship rather than dropping it on their way out, as newest NXT superstar Ricky Saints (formerly Ricky Starks) has officially announced that he will be handing back the DEFY Championship. 

Over the last several months, Saints hadn’t been used in any capacity in AEW, though he was able to take some dates elsewhere. On February 7, Saints took a trip to DEFY Wrestling, defeating KENTA to become the new DEFY World Champion. However, it was soon after this that Saints received his release from AEW, signing with WWE immediately and debuting in NXT. With no defences of the title, it was revealed via a social media video from Saints yesterday that he would be relinquishing the DEFY Championship.

Even with WWE being more open to wrestlers competing outside of the company under the current regime, in this instance it seems that Saints is not allowed to put someone over on his way out, similar to the situation in Pro Wrestling NOAH last month in which Omos was pulled from Japan and forced to give up one half of the tag titles.

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