Ricky Saints Says AEW Veterans 'Stuck Their Nose' In His Creative

Soon after revealing his new name on NXT TV, Ricky Saints appeared on Busted Open Radio, where he was given the floor to discuss his AEW departure.

The former AEW World Tag Team Champion first denied that his brief appearances at the 2024 Royal Rumble or at WrestleMania XL caused an issue, claiming that they were approved by AEW boss Tony Khan.

For Saints, he isn't sure exactly where it all started to go wrong between him and AEW, but denied that he was injured or unwilling to do anything creatively, saying:

"I can't tell you exactly what the moment was. You could say it was Punk leaving and things kinda fell apart. Absolutely, I probably agree with you on that, alright? Or you could say is that Ricky didn't play the politics well enough. Alright, for sure…there's so many things you can say. What I can say for myself is that when I got hurt in March, that was it, I never came back. And even then, I wasn't hurt, it was a precaution thing where I got scared as I had a stinger. Then I was fine. After that, no, no dice, no communication. No nothing. And that is okay because...I ended up here. And it's fine. Everything worked out. I don't know explicitly where it went wrong, I can't point to one thing. I can say it was a storm of things probably. Did I do something that may have tipped them off? Sure, asking for my release whenever you know, this past whatever, that could have been about it right?  But never once was I not willing to do something, never once was I sabotaging anything".

Continuing, the 34-year-old alluded to some unnamed veterans in the AEW locker room who may have played a role:

"I will say this, there are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn't have happened. Veterans. And that's it, I'll leave it at that. And if they got a problem with me, they got my number. And text me about it. I think what it was is if it didn't work for their creative, then someone had to get the boot. That's how I see it. But I'm not trying to be negative in my thought process about it…if you want to step on me to get ahead in your illustrious career, everyone has an illustrious career. Everyone should have an illustrious career. That is perfectly fine. But at the same time, I'm not wet behind my ears".

Saints will make his in-ring debut on the February 25 edition of NXT when he teams with Je'Von Evans against Wes Lee and Ethan Page.

H/T F4WOnline

Cultaholic is now on WhatsApp! Follow us here. Sign up to the Cultaholic Wrestling Newsletter now.