“I’d like to offer you a contract”- Top AEW star recalls getting a text from an impressed Tony Khan

A top AEW star recently revealed his conversation with Tony Khan before signing with All Elite Wrestling.

The star in question is none other than Ricky Starks, who was signed with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) before his AEW debut. However, he eventually left NWA during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to sign with All Elite Wrestling. Ricky Starks made his AEW debut when he answered Cody Rhodes' TNT Title Open Challenge on the June 17, 2020 episode of Dynamite.

Speaking in an interview with Hold the Mayo, Starks revealed why he decided not to renew his contract with NWA.

"I didn't re-sign [with NWA] because I felt like I had hit my ceiling already," Starks said. "I quit, basically, right when COVID happened. So I had no paycheck. So I was making all my money online from my t-shirts on my website. I had did this video. I make these different vignettes, these videos... A promotional package for myself. I direct all of them, I pay for all of them, I produce all of them. And I had posted it online. I posted it online, and Cody [Rhodes] had replied to it like 'Oh, this is cool.' That was... That may have been in May or something like that. The end of May comes around, I get an email from him saying, 'Hey, we want you to come in and do this Open Challenge for the TNT Title.' I said 'Okay. I'm just cooped up in my house right now. I'll do it.'"

Starks added:

"So, I have the match," Starks said. "And then I walk to the back, and people were just like 'That was good. Good job. Blah blah blah. Good job.' But I didn't hear anything about if I had a job or not. People were just like 'Man, you may have a job. You did really good.' So I go home, and then the night that it airs, the match itself, I get a text from Tony like 'I'd like to offer you this deal... I'd like to offer you a contract.'" [H/T - WrestlingInc.]

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Ricky Starks wants to become the AEW World Champion

AEW star Ricky Starks has had some amount of success in the Jacksonville-based promotion. He is a former FTW Champion, AEW World Tag Team Champion as well as the winner of the 2023 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. However, Starks still has one milestone to reach in the company.

In an interview with Forbes, Ricky Starks spoke on his goal to hold the AEW World Title.

“I had someone ask me my goal and I can’t tell you, because every time I make one, it changes immediately.” Starks added, “I would love to say I have goals, but I really don’t. Obviously, I’d love to be AEW World Champion, but every time I make a goal, it never ends up going the way I had envisioned it. So, I think I’m gonna try something different." [H/T Forbes]

Ricky Starks is currently in a tag team with Big Bill and the duo are coming off a major loss. Starks and Bill recently lost their AEW World Tag Team Championships to Sting and Darby Allin in a tornado tag team match a couple of weeks ago on Dynamite.

Do you want to see Ricky Starks become AEW World Champion? Let us know in the comments below.