Ricky Starks attended the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble to support his friend Cody Rhodes, who was returning from a torn pectoral injury.
A photo of Starks being backstage with Cody ended up online, causing discourse between fans over an AEW wrestler attending a WWE show.
You know what’s funny about that? First off, yes, I did go see a friend of mine for his match," Ricky told Chris Van Vliet on Insight. "It was an hour away. Secondly, they caught me walking to the bus. Third off, somebody who worked at Alamo decided to take a video and screenshot and post it. I’m very respectful of wrestling traditions and the hierarchy, but I’ll be damned, the minute that I am disrespected, you do not get that back. A veteran was telling me, ‘You think a McDonald’s worker is going across the street to Burger King.’ ‘What?’ ‘That’s such a bad look on the business.’ We have veterans who do podcasts where they openly talk about the storylines they are in currently and how they did a match. They’re telling me that walking to a bus, on security footage, that is more disrespectful to the business than them being on a podcast and being like, ‘This is the idea we had about this current angle.’ Give me a break. Ya’ll are crazy.
"It was simply visiting a friend. I was only on the bus. I stayed on the bus. I wasn’t trying to cause any type of issues. The whole purpose was, I was walking to the bus so I wasn’t seen by anybody."
Ricky remained on AEW television after the 2023 Royal Rumble, and won the 2023 Owen Hart Memorial Foundation Tournament.
Elsewhere during the interview, Starks commented on his AEW absence since March 2024. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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