Ricky Starks is the latest superstar to jump ship from AEW to WWE. The Absolute showed up out of nowhere during NXT this week.
Both the announcers and Starks seemingly refrained from using his name during the promo. He simply boasted that the crowd clearly knew who he was as they chanted his name.
During a recent episode of BroDown on Backstage Pass, Vince Russo gave his opinion of WWE signing Starks to a contract, claiming he may be over with the NXT crowd, but Starks wasn't a "casual fan draw."
"Ricky Starks is over with that bubble. He's not a casual fan draw. I mean, he's just not. So, okay in the bubble, it's a big deal. But you've already got those people in the bubble."
He continued:
"So, you know, everyone we're talking about, they're not a Cena or Batista or a Rock. They're not mainstream. They're never going to, you know, appeal to casual fans. So again, man, we just keep playing to this audience that we already have." [36:22 onwards]
Ricky Starks hasn't been announced for WWE Vengeance Day at the time of this writing. It remains to be seen if he appears in some capacity at NXT's upcoming Premium Live Event.
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