On a recent episode of the “Insight” podcast, Ricky Starks chronicles his experiences on an early promo after wrestling personality, CM Punk’s abrupt exit from AEW. He pinpoints being urged to be grateful for maintaining his job during this turmoil.
On the brink of engaging in a feud with Punk, Starks gravitated towards squaring up with Bryan Danielson. He recounted his emotions, stating, “Before I went out, I was nervous, but I guess I didn’t really realize what was about to happen. I was so frustrated in such a beautiful and organic way. The day before, Tony comes out and announces that Punk is gone. I actually opened that show with a promo. Watch the promo. Very good, and you can kind of tell what’s happening. I was so frustrated about things happening the way they have. I’ll never forget someone telling me, ‘Just be grateful that you even have a job.’ I’ll never forget feeling like, ‘How dare you.’ Don’t tell me to be grateful for something that I’ve worked very hard for. That saying, ‘I know that you’re hungry for a dinner. Here is a half-eaten loaf of bread. Let me take that back. Here are the crumbs.’ Fk you. Don’t tell me to be grateful for something. You don’t live my life and understand the things I’ve gone through to get in this moment. It really set me off. When it came to Sunday, I was looking forward to it, but I didn’t realize what laid ahead of me and what I was going to be capable of doing. Bryan had that injury too and we had to deal with that.”
Effy is set to fill Ricky Starks’ shoes in the forthcoming match against Matt Cardona at GCW’s Highest In The Room 3. As previously noted, AEW has decided to withdraw Starks from his impending appearances in GCW. Starks was poised to compete with Cardona on December 14, but GCW disclosed on Friday that Effy will substitute for him in the match.
A tweet by GCW announced, “LA UPDATE Just Signed: MATT CARDONA vs EFFY Plus: Josh Barnett vs Royce Isaacs, Matthew Justice v Dr Redacted, Zara Zakher v Brooke Havok, Mance Warner, Megan Bayne, Dereiss, Desperados. Watch LIVE on @FiteTV+ Sat 12/14 – 8PM”. Thus, highlighting the new match arrangements following Starks’ removal from the GCW schedule.