Ricky Starks sends final message ahead of massive match against CM Punk's real-life rival

Ricky Starks is set to compete against CM Punk's real-life rival. The Absolute One sent a message ahead of his huge match.

CM Punk and Kenta are two men who never faced each other in the ring. However, there is no love lost between them. Their real-life issue is over the usage of the GTS which both men use as their finishers. Kenta first originated the move during his time in Japan but Punk made the move famous when he used it in WWE.

The GTS eventually became synonymous with CM Punk which didn't sit well with Kenta who felt that The Straight Edge Superstar had appropriated the move without proper acknowledgement. To make matters worse, when Kenta wrestled in WWE under the ring name Hideo Itami, he was banned from using the GTS which he described as one of the worst experiences of his career.

When Kenta left WWE, fans were anticipating a dream match against CM Punk at AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door which the latter turned down. Kenta is now set to compete at an upcoming DEFY Wrestling show on February 7 against another one of Punk's former opponents, Ricky Starks. Ahead of the match, the Absolute One took to X (fka Twitter) to send a message to his fans.

"Tomorrow night is going to be ABSOLUTE! Starks vs KENTA Stacked card top to bottom and I wouldn’t have it any other way on a Friday night in Seattle," he wrote.

You can check out his tweet below:

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The real reason Ricky Starks was pulled from AEW TV

Ricky Starks' sudden absence from AEW programming remains one of the biggest mysteries of 2024. He was once promoted as the future of the company and was being pushed as a huge star. However, he has not been featured on All Elite Wrestling programming since March last year and has since been competing in the indies. He even denied any rumors of an injury which is more puzzling for the fans.

According to recent reports from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Starks got on Tony Khan's bad side due to his plans to leave the promotion and this seemingly resulted in the AEW boss sidelining him.

"Tony Khan more and more if someone doesn’t want to do his creative, unless they are his top tier guys, he just stops using them with the idea there are tons of other people who are cooperative that want TV time. Plus, with Starks, once he was convinced Starks was leaving, he wasn’t going to book him going forward because that’s just how he does things," stated the report.

It will be interesting to see when Ricky Starks will make his return to AEW TV in the future.