Brand New WWE NXT Star Ricky Saints Discusses Where It All Changed With AEW

Following his exit from All Elite Wrestling, Ricky Starks is now Ricky Saints of "WWE NXT." As Saints explains, though, the road to WWE wasn't easy, as his final year in AEW came with much uncertainty. During an appearance on "Busted Open After Dark," Saints addressed his lengthy absence from AEW television, which he believes could be attributed to a number of things.

"You could say it was [CM] Punk leaving and things kinda fell apart, absolutely. I probably agree with you on that," Saints said. "Or you could say it's that Ricky didn't play the politics well enough. Okay, for sure ... There's so many things you can say. What I can say for myself is that when I got hurt in March, that was it, I never came back. Even then, I wasn't hurt. It was a precaution thing where I got scared because I had a stinger. Then I was fine. After that, no dice, no communication, no nothing. And that is okay because I ended up here."

Amidst Saints' absence from television, which began in March 2024, some reports suggested that he turned down storyline pitches from AEW. Saints later denied this to be the case, noting that he never refused any creative ideas.

"Never once was I not willing to do something, never once was I sabotaging anything," Saints reiterated. "What I think it probably was is there was probably things said to [AEW CEO Tony Khan] from other people maybe."

Looking ahead, Saints will make his in-ring debut for "NXT" next week in a tag match against Wes Lee and fellow former AEW star Ethan Page. Je'Von Evans will serve as his tag partner.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open After Dark" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.