"The Stroke Daddy" isn't worried about the abundance of ex-WWE stars in AEW.
Ricky Starks arrived in the promotion in June 2020. Since then, the company has added names like CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Adam Cole, among many others. Meanwhile, Starks remains one of the company's young wrestlers who has risen up the ranks throughout his time with AEW.
Speaking to Nick Hausman of Wrestling Inc., Starks was asked whether seeing the promotion sign former WWE stars gives him a chip on his shoulder.
"No, not at all," he replied. "I don’t believe in having a chip on my shoulder because that makes me a whiny little bitch. But what I do believe in is, these people who come in and the attitude of a higher-than, and we are a less-than, you get what I’m saying? I think it should be noted that there’s a reason those people don’t work there anymore, and we should look at the facts of why."
Starks then described how he and his tag team partner, Powerhouse Hobbs, held down the fort throughout the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they have proven that they're levels above the competition.
"So when they get in the ring, and they stand across the ring from me or Hobbs, we have proven to people, by contrast, exactly what they left or why they got kicked out or whatever happened. We have proven that me and Hobbs, the people who have been here through the pandemic, man, who came in around the same time, we proved exactly that me and Hobbs are better, if not levels, I mean levels, above these guys. I don’t care who you are. And you can put this in the headlines of the dirt sheets. I don’t give a shit who you are. You can’t come in here and act like you’re way better than me or Hobbs. It ain’t gonna happen, Jack. Not as long as I got breath in my lungs," said Starks.
Starks and Hobbs unsuccessfully challenged for the AEW World Tag Team Championship on this week's episode of AEW Dynamite. To see full results from tonight's AEW Dynamite, click here. To watch Fightful's post-show on our YouTube channel, click here.