Ricky Starks Has 'No Clue' Why He's Off AEW TV

Ricky Starks’ ongoing absence from All Elite Wrestling TV is a source of frustration and surprise to many fans, and seemingly also to Starks himself.

‘Absolute’ has only wrestled for AEW on five occasions in 2024 - plus one match for Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling - with his last outing coming on the March 30 edition of AEW Collision. Rumours suggested that Starks could be dealing with an injury, but in an interview with WhatCulture, Starks insisted this isn’t the case:

"I'm not hurt. Even that night [March 30 against Top Flight], I specifically stated, 'Hey, I'm not hurt'. I was just being cautious about it. At that moment, I didn't know what was happening, especially with this [left] side of my body. So, I wasn't hurt and I was never put on an injury list or anything like that. I have no answer.

“People ask me all the time [about being absent from TV]. I don't know, I have no clue. That isn't up to me. It does suck, obviously, to not be on TV, but the support and people online and people who send me messages is very, very sweet and endearing, and very encouraging from that standpoint. I didn't know that that was... I'm trying to think, six matches this year? That's a small number, y'know, compared to what I was doing the years prior. Honestly, man, I don't bulls**t anybody, I don't try to play with anybody's life or anything like that. I just kind of stick to myself and I just also operate in the belief that my work will carry me through any obstacle. And I still believe that,” said Starks.

Starks continued;

"There weren't any specific statements of 'This guy's injured'. I remember seeing a list that was floating around, that wasn't even verified. I was getting so aggravated, because people would send me a text message or something like that. 'Are you hurt? What's going on?' 'No, I'm not hurt, I don't know who's doing this'. So, when I went to get my physical, people alluded to, 'Well, he was there to get cleared'. No bro, I was just there to get my balls checked and do my physical. That was it. That's all I was doing. So yeah, man, I'm healthy and great. I'm perfectly fine. I shouldn't have any type of questioning of, 'Well, are you really?' Bitch, I'm telling you I'm not hurt. I don't know what more you want me to say. And that's the thing, man, when it comes to my career, I only have one injury, so to speak, and that was the whole neck thing. That was it. And even then, when I had the neck injury, I still was coming to work. So, I don't want to hear anything about anyone saying I'm injury prone or whatever someone might want to try to drum up in their f****** weird head. There's nothing, there's no issue."

The recipient of several stop/start pushes in AEW, Starks has continuously been linked with a move to WWE when his AEW contract finishes up, mainly due to Starks' close friendship with current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.

H/T: WhatCulture