"I was so close to being paralyzed"- Ricky Starks talks about his nearly career-ending injury

Ricky Starks recently opened-up about suffering a neck fracture last year in a match against current AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page. He stated that the injury came very close to paralyzing him.

Starks recently sat down for an interview with Z100's Josh Martinez. In the interview, he discussed the fracture he suffered on the 21 April 2021 edition of AEW Dynamite. He was injured during the match when Adam Page threw him for a German suplex. Starks intended to perform a sunset flip and land on his feet. Instead, he under-rotated and landed on the back of his neck and ankle.

"I was trying to land on my feet basically and I thought — I was like, ‘Ah, I didn’t get all of that’ but when I stood up, I feel like I really — like a tightness in my neck and I was like, ‘Hm, okay. That feels different." said Starks, talking about the incident. (H/T - WrestleTalk)

The FTW World Champion spoke about speculation that appeared after the match that he had broken an ankle or had a concussion. Instead, it was his neck that "stiffened up."

“The first two saw it and was like, ‘Well, you know, there isn’t — you seem fine’ but it was the third one that was like, ‘Yeah, this is actually fractured’ and they all kind of said the same thing in terms of, you know, ‘You have a bit of a bulge’ and thankfully, no big herniation or anything like that." recalled Starks.

---

"I've yet to go and see the match fully"- Ricky Starks on the match where he suffered a neck fracture.

The reigning FTW World Champion and member of Team Taz, Ricky Starks, is yet to watch his match against "Hangman" Adam Page.

"Every time I see that clip that someone shares online, I can’t watch it and I don’t want to relive it." Ricky Starks on weather he rewatched the moment.

He described the event as traumatizing and said he couldn't fathom the possibility of being paralyzed..

He made a speedy recovery and defeated Brian Cage for the FTW title at July 2021's "Fyter Fest". Starks also recently competed in the "Face of the Revolution" ladder match at AEW Revolution 2022 pay-per-view. He is currently embroiled in a feud against Orange Cassidy and Danhausen.

Are you guys excited to see what the future has in store for Ricky Starks?