Ricky Saints Shoots on AEW During Interview

Paying homage to his New Orleans roots, Starks — formerly of AEW — has officially been rebranded as Ricky Saints. He will be a fixture on WWE programming moving forward in the wake of signing a contract Tuesday during an NXT taping.

Saints had been a hot topic over the last calendar year. At one time, he was one of AEW’s most bankable stars. It seemed as if he was on the course to become a true pillar of the company.

When he went toe-to-toe on the mic with Adam Copeland aka Edge aka “Cope” in a segment, Copeland essentially embarrassed Saints — going off script and making the exchange weirdly personal.

Since then, Saints never regained the momentum he had once built. Tony Khan has kept him off television for a year, and many assumed he’d make the jump to WWE when the time was right.

A day after his release from AEW was made official, Saints showed up on NXT. The week after, he already was showcased all over the episode both in the ring and backstage.
Saints recently interviewed on Busted Open Radio. He had this to say about his departure from AEW:

“I will say this, there are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn’t have happened. Veterans. That’s it, I’ll leave it at that. And if they got a problem with me, they got my number. Text me about it.”

There’s some conjecture as to who Saints may be talking about. Copeland is clearly implicated, and there’s also a chance Saints may be riffing on Chris Jericho. Saints and Jericho worked together for a spell before Jericho adopted Saints’ tag team partner Big Bill into The Learning Tree stable.

Saints has some real charisma, and it appears as if he put some muscle on ahead of the move to NXT. Pairing him with another ex-AEW wrestler (Ethan Page) seems like a natural step. It won’t be surprising to see Saints eventually end up on RAW or SmackDown. He seems like a better fit for the storytelling of WWE compared to the more wrestling-centric feel of AEW.