In a storyline twist that not even the best of soap operas could script, former AEW World Tag Team Champion Ricky Starks has mysteriously vanished from AEW television. It’s been since March 30th folks, and not a peep, not a cameo, not even a shadow of Starks on the AEW airwaves. As Double or Nothing looms just on the horizon, the chances of Starks strutting down that ramp are looking as thin as my patience with mystery thrillers that drag on too long.
The man himself, caught backstage at AEW while attending what he insists was just a routine physical, shared with WhatCulture, “Every time I always predict something to go some way, it doesn’t go that way, and it kind of just leaves me being like, ‘Well, we’ll just figure out and see.'” A philosopher, our Ricky, with a dose of existential dread—because he has “no clue” when he’ll be back on TV. Maybe he should start looking under the ring; that’s where all the good surprises hide!
Starks, ever the optimist, finds some comfort knowing that his wrestling prowess speaks volumes, even if the AEW brass seems to have put him on mute. Despite a minor hiccup during his last match on “AEW Collision” that changed the match’s finish, he’s been shouting from the rooftops, “I’m not hurt!” It’s like a wrestling version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, except the boy is fit, and nobody’s listening.
Adding salt to the wound, Starks’ former tag team buddy, Big Bill, has cozied up with Chris Jericho, leaving our hero without a tag to his name. Starks kept mum about his AEW contract and his future, perhaps hoping for a dramatic twist or a surprise rescue from obscurity.