Ricky Starks Shares His Thoughts On AEW's Women's Division

Barely a day goes by without some discourse over the AEW women's division, whether it's from a sign in the crowd or criticism from a long-time indie wrestling veteran that leads to the locker room uniting in unison. Both things occurred this past week, which made it the subject a timely question for one Ricky Starks when he sat down for an interview with "DAZN."

Starks does, in fact, believe that women in AEW are at times fairly maligned, and also believes there can be a bit of a double standard with how women's wrestling is criticized compared to the men.

"I do think that the women get more of a bad rap than they should," Starks said. "They work hard, and they work hard within the things that they're given ... It also seems like sometimes, the fans ... they really want to see it, but then the outcry of negativity is so strong that somehow, they lose sight of the bigger picture, which was supporting women's wrestling, supporting these girls that go out there and bust their ass.

"It's a weird thing, I feel like, especially social media. It's so bizarre, to hear these fans who are out of shape, grown men, say 'Well, they kind of messed that up there.' They get the worst rep of all. Man, you can even dig in. There's some women, based off of age, color, sex, and all this stuff, that even get it worse. And just for no reason. So it's multi-layered in that sense, and I wish it wasn't a thing in professional wrestling."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "DAZN" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription