Ricky Starks Reveals Question Fans Ask Him He Finds "Hurtful"

During a recent interview with Wrassle Rap AEW's Ricky Starks spoke about how some fans think he is retired due to how little he wrestles on AEW TV.

The Team Taz star admitted that it is hurtful when people say that and he wants audiences to not forget that he is still active in the ring, as well as doing commentary work.

"I got a lot of messages asking if I am retired, and that sh*t is hurtful, dawg," he said. "That sucks to hear fans asking me if I am retired, you know, because they don't see me enough. I don't ever want the sun to go down on me in that sense, you know what I am saying? I like doing commentary on Rampage, but I don't want people to forget that I am still active, I don't want people to think that I am just some young retiree because I am doing commentary."

Ricky Starks might be on the AEW roster right now, but he did spend a lot of time doing extra work for WWE. He also had the opportunity to have a tryout, which did not end up working out, and he decided to stop appearing for WWE as an extra.

"I was doing extra work since like 2012," he said. "I don't know which one it was, it had to be them seeing me so often that led to me getting that. But, I did extra work so many times to the point where I said, 'there's no point to me doing extra work anymore, because they've seen enough of me. If they like something, they would have signed me by now, so I am done with this extra work stuff.'

"So, I had the tryout in 2017, I want to say I did one more extra work after that. And that's when I was just like, 'yeah, I am over it, I am not doing that anymore.'"

In the end, Ricky Starks got his opportunity with AEW via the TNT Championship open challenge. He recalled thinking that it was going to be a one-off moment due to the pandemic but that wasn't the case in the end, as he got the call to join full time.

"It was someone else within the organization, I didn't recognize the number," he revealed. "But they were just like, 'hey, do you want to come do this match, blah, blah, blah, open challenge.' I went there thinking that this was a one-and-done because it was during the pandemic. So, I didn't think that they were signing anybody. Then after the match was done everyone was like, 'it was good, good job,' then the day that it aired that night I got signed. It's incredible."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrassle Rap with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.