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A former AEW champion recently revealed CM Punk's firing might have been one of the reasons behind his departure from the Tony Khan-led promotion. The talent is none other than WWE's latest signing, Ricky Starks.
On the February 11, 2025, edition of NXT, Ricky Starks shocked the world by making a surprise appearance. Following this, he revealed that he would sign a contract with the black-and-silver brand. On this week's NXT, Starks finally signed a deal, and it was revealed that his ring name would be Ricky Saints.
Following the show, the former AEW star made an appearance on the Busted Open podcast. During the interview, Bully Ray asked the 34-year-old the reason behind his departure from the Tony Khan-led promotion. Ricky Saints said CM Punk's firing from All Elite Wrestling seemingly played a big role in his exit.
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"I can’t tell you exactly what the moment was. You could say it was [CM] Punk leaving and things kinda fell apart. Absolutely, I probably agree with you on that, alright? Or you could say that Ricky didn’t play the politics well enough. Alright, for sure (…) there’s so many things you can say."
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Saints also said he got hurt in March 2024, and he took some time off as a precaution. The former FTW Champion added that the company did not communicate with him even after he was ready to compete.
“What I can say for myself is that when I got hurt in March, that was it, I never came back. And even then, I wasn’t hurt, it was a precaution thing where I got scared as I had a stinger. Then I was fine. After that, no, no dice, no communication. No nothing. And that is okay because (…) I ended up here. And it’s fine. Everything worked out. I don’t know explicitly where it went wrong, I can’t point to one thing. I can say it was a storm of things probably." [H/T: Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online]
CM Punk reacted to Ricky Starks' WWE debut
WWE's official Instagram handle shared a clip of Ricky Starks' debut on the February 11, 2025 edition of NXT. This post caught CM Punk's attention, and he reacted to it with a one-word message.
"Ab👏🏼so👏🏼lute👏🏼," he wrote.
Ricky Saints is set to team up with Je'Von Evans to face Wes Lee and Ethan Page on next week's NXT. It will be interesting to see what the Stamford-based promotion has planned for Saints on the road to Stand & Deliver 2025. Meanwhile, CM Punk will be in action at Elimination Chamber in Toronto next month.
