Since signing with AEW as one of the true success stories of Cody Rhodes' original TNT Championship Open Challenge, Ricky Starks has gone up and down the card for Tony Khan's company.
He's challenged for multiple titles – including CM Punk's “Real” AEW World Championship – been part of factions, and now, he's… well, no one really knows what he's doing, not even Starks, who, in an interview with WhatCulture Wrestling, revealed that he wants to do something substantive for Tony Khan's company moving forward, as he doesn't want to miss All In two years in a row.
“The idea of even being at WrestleMania is so…I don't even think…I think I had that dream, and then I stopped having that dream for whatever reason. Not to be sad or anything. I don't know why. But I think everybody dreams about that. But AEW has its own WrestleMania, so to speak, with All In,” Ricky Starks told WhatCulture Wrestling via Fightful.
“It did suck last year to not be on it. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, and I don't want to publicly say that I'm gonna be on All In this year, and then I just don't. I'm kind of superstitious like that, in a way. I am, but I'm not. Would it be nice? For sure. Do I know that I will? I don't know. Do I hope? Yeah. But if not, I also get it, too. What I mean by that is, I also get like, hey, some shit just don't work out for you. If we've known by now in my career, some things just, it ain't gonna happen. It ain't gonna happen for me, and that's okay. I don't want to harp on that or focus on that part because I'll just be stuck in a s**tty space. So I think what's next for me is… dude, I have no clue. I don't know. I have no clue. I would love to be back wrestling and doing something with substance, but that is not in my control. So I don't know, to be real with you. Hopefully, you see me back on-screen real soon. [Shrugs] Yeah, because I'm ready.”
Is Starks going rogue, actively lobbying for a bigger role in AEW after being off of television for the last two months? Or could this all be part of some plan all the way from the top, with Tony Khan looking to use Starks as a returning rebel babyface who fills a role similar to what Punk did before his altercation at All In last year? Either way, some very interesting comments from “Absolute” indeed, especially since he's such good friends with two of WWE's top stars, Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill.
Dave Meltzer weighs in on AEW's recent ratings decline.
Discussing AEW's recent ratings dip on Wrestling Observer Live, with the promotion doing uncharacteristically poor numbers during the NBA playoffs, Dave Meltzer waded through the details to determine the cause of the issues and whether or not it has to do with what the promotion is putting on television each week.
“The booking in this way didn't change four weeks ago. Tony Khan did the thing with the neck brace at the NFL thing, and the thing with (comparing WWE to) Weinstein and all that, but I can't believe that that's the reason,” Dave Meltzer explained via WrestleTalk. “Obviously, they've been doing the Young Bucks storyline, and I don't think that's the reason, but perhaps. That is something that changed if there's anything that changed in the show. I was saying ‘It's not cool', and people were taking that all wrong and totally misinterpreting, as always, totally misinterpreting what I said. It's a way to explain why one age group – the most important – is down significantly while everything else is not down at all. Are they turning some people off in every age group? A little, of course, you always do. Do the playoffs hurt? Of course they do; they always do. But this is more than that.”
Could fans truly not like the current Elite storyline where the Young Bucks are leaning into their statuses as the promotion's EVPs? Maybe, but frankly, that doesn't seem particularly likely, as very few AEW storylines have really lifted up the ratings or pushed fans away in droves. Still, this is something Khan should try to identify and fix moving forward, especially considering AEW is very much in the middle of a media rights negotiation period that could make or break the promotion moving forward.
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