"I could see all of Cody's guys leaving" - Fans react as Tony Khan believes Cody Rhodes is the reason for high-profile AEW departure

Tony Khan recently witnessed a high-profile departure from his company. The departed star has now joined AEW's rival company, WWE.

Ricky Starks had been sidelined from All Elite television since March 2024. Recently, Tony Khan released him from the promotion. Last week, he made his WWE debut on NXT and officially signed a contract with the Stamford-based promotion this week. He is now known as Ricky Saints.

The Absolute star is very close to Cody Rhodes from their time together in All Elite Wrestling. He even went to multiple WWE PLEs like Royal Rumble and WrestleMania to support his friend when the latter was on his quest to win the Undisputed WWE Championship.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently revealed that Tony Khan believes that Ricky's connection to The American Nightmare was the main reason why he left AEW for WWE.

Fans believe that Tony Khan has judged the situation correctly as it was assumed that the former FTW Champion would follow Cody Rhodes into WWE sooner or later, given their deep friendship.

"The connection is he went to support cody at mania and tony just punished him lol," a person said.

A fan stated, "The minute Cody left, Ricky was one foot out the door. It is not like AEW did not try to do stuff with Ricky. It just never worked out."

"Well of course he did. Ricky was flat out touring wwe backstage while working for AEW," this user wrote.

Some people even highlighted that other All Elite stars close to Cody Rhodes, like MJF, could also head to the Stamford-based promotion soon.

A tweet read, "I could see all of Cody's guys leaving. Eventually, MJF is gonna go too."

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Ricky Starks took a shot at AEW veterans

Ricky Starks recently had an interview on the Busted Open podcast, where he took a shot at AEW veterans. He stated that the veterans in the company were sticking their noses in their business, which he didn't appreciate.

"I will say this, there are some people who stuck their nose in my creative business that shouldn’t have happened. Veterans. And that’s it, I’ll leave it at that. And if they got a problem with me, they got my number. And text me about it. I think what it was is if it didn’t work for their creative, then someone had to get the boot. That’s how I see it."

He hinted that it was one of the reasons that led to the fallout between him and Tony Khan's promotion. He also revealed that he took a hiatus in March 2024 to tend to some injuries but was never called back to action despite being physically fit.