Bully Ray Addresses Idea That Ricky Starks Got Lost In Shuffle At AEW

After roughly a year spent off AEW TV, Ricky Starks has now made two appearances on "WWE NXT," with last night's show revealing that he'll be performing as Ricky Saints in the promotion. Speaking on "Busted Open Radio" ahead of last night's "NXT," co-host Dave LaGreca shared his belief that Starks got "lost in the shuffle" on a packed AEW roster, but Bully Ray disagreed, providing another potential reason why Starks was de-emphasized in the promotion.

"Ricky Starks — I think his career took a turn for the quote-unquote worse in AEW when he was seen at [the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble] supporting Cody [Rhodes]," Bully said.

Bully stated that AEW co-owner Tony Khan has a tendency to take things personally, making the argument that Khan lost interest in pushing Starks after the AEW star was spotted backstage on the night Rhodes returned to WWE. If that trend continues, Bully believes it will keep costing Khan and the promotion as a whole.

"I learned from Vince McMahon to never take things personally," Bully continued. "It's a lot easier said than done, but if anybody never took things personally in wrestling, it was Vince. Look at all the people who spoke disparagingly of Vince. Eric Bischoff tried to put him out of business for real. ... Did Vince take it personally?"

While Starks was taken off AEW TV, it came more than a year after he was spotted backstage at the Royal Rumble. Around that time, Starks wrapped up a feud with Chris Jericho and eventually went on to face CM Punk in the finals of the 2023 Owen Hart Cup, which he won. Starks later feuded with Bryan Danielson and captured the AEW World Tag Team Championship alongside Big Bill before reported creative differences led to Starks being put on the backburner.