AEW’s Ricky Starks Addresses Being ‘Caught’ Supporting Cody Rhodes In WWE

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AEW’s Ricky Starks has opened up about attending WWE PLEs to support his friends, Cody Rhodes and Jade Cargill.

During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Starks revealed that his absence from AEW television has been a “mindf**k” confirming that he’s healthy.

Having previously been spotted backstage at the 2023 Royal Rumble, Starks was also in the crowd for WrestleMania 40 in 2024.

Speaking to Van Vliet about his inadvertent Royal Rumble moment, Starks said:

“You know what’s so funny about that whole situation? First off, yes, I did go see a friend of mine for his match, obviously, because it was an hour away. Secondly, they caught me walking to the bus. So like, Okay. Third off, somebody who worked at Alamo decided to take a video, take that screenshot, and then post it.

“I remember the next day, Sunday, I woke up and this whole thing was blowing up. I was like what is this? I had people from my job, I had one guy who was like ‘Were you at the Rumble last night?’ I said ‘Yeah and what the f**k about it?’ He goes ‘Just saying that’s a bad look.’ How is it a bad look? I can’t control somebody taking security footage while I am walking to a bus, I don’t control that. Tell me how that is a bad look.

“We got people on our own program talking about people in the other company, but me having my security footage exposed is a bad look? Give me a break! 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 or anything like that. The whole purpose was I was walking to the bus so I wouldn’t be seen by anybody.”

Starks would also comment on celebrating Cargill’s first WrestleMania match in April this year, saying:

“You know who else was in the box with me? Dustin, QT Marshall, Aaron Solo. This is not me putting them on blast. This is just saying yes, there’s people in the box.

“There’s footage of me celebrating. There was no issue about that. There was no issue at all. Only because before I had went Tony already said, Hey, it’s okay. So like, there was no issue. Now, if he actually didn’t mean that, okay, I don’t know, that’s different. But there was no issue about that and I still, to this day, don’t see a problem with it. I’m gonna tell you why. I got into this because I am a fan. I love professional wrestling. Regardless of where I work, I’m going to go and support people that I love, and I’m gonna go support wrestling in general.

“I was there to watch Jade’s first Mania match and was extremely proud. I saw her match, and then I was there to see Cody’s match. Guess what? I was at Mania the year before that and saw Cody lose.

“There is no issue with somebody being at another show. Jay Z ain’t gonna go to another rapper’s concert? He ain’t gonna go to a J Cole concert? It’s only blown up online because people are trying to get paid for their engagement, they got rent due, I always make that joke. It’s people who just want to start something.

“You could say it’s the tribalistic fans, I don’t necessarily agree with that, to a certain extent yeah. I remember seeing some quote tweets about how I was dick-riding Cody because I was there, and I was just like, wow, this is amazing, because if you took this situation out of the scope of wrestling, people would think it’s normal. But supposedly, for some reason, it is so taboo to not be over here when you work [for another company]. Who cares? We all getting paid, aren’t we?”

It has recently been reported that Starks remains under an AEW contract until spring or summer 2025.

In the interview, Starks also discussed the possibility of a move to WWE when his contract expires.

Transcript from chrisvanvliet.com.

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• jade cargill
• Cody Rhodes
• ricky starks
• AEW
• wwe

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