GCW’s Brett Lauderdale on AEW pulling Ricky Starks: ‘It certainly doesn’t feel great’
GCW’s Brett Lauderdale has commented on Ricky Starks being pulled from his promotion’s upcoming shows.
Starks appeared at GCW Dream On this weekend and cut a promo that referred to his not being used by AEW over the last eight months. It seemed that Starks and Matt Cardona were beginning a program, but then GCW was informed yesterday that AEW was pulling Starks from all upcoming appearances for the company.
Lauderdale addressed the situation on an episode of the Game Changer Weekly podcast early Tuesday morning. He said:
“Ricky Starks has worked for GCW before. So, he’s no stranger. We know him and we had a little bit of a relationship. And he’s also pretty tight friends with a few of the people in our locker room.”
“He, like many others, reached out to us and asked if we’d be interested and, of course, we’d love to have a guy like Ricky Starks, who we know how talented he is, we know how popular he is.”
“His promo and his appearance could have easily led to good business in many different directions. So, I think it was a big opportunity and a big opportunity seized and up until a couple of hours ago, it looked like we were on the right track. All of us.”
“Theoretically an independent contractor is independent, and they can go and work wherever they want. But in wrestling, these independent contractors don’t seem to be very independent. They’re at the whim of an employer, which sure makes it seem like they are an employee. I don’t know. It’s above our pay grade. I’m just an indie wrestling company and I don’t have people under contract.”
“I don’t really have a line of communication with AEW. I’ve never talked to Tony Khan on the phone or via text in my entire life. They don’t talk to me. I’m not trying to say that necessarily in a negative context but, I guess, we’ve never really had to talk.”
“I haven’t been on the phone with AEW where they’ve given me an explanation or asked me any questions or anything. I have no communication with AEW over this. I don’t know where it goes beyond Ricky Starks. But, of course, Sunday was Bloodsport in Jersey city and Jon Moxley was there, and Marina was there, and some others, many others, actually, were there, both on and off camera. So, I’m not sure what the deal is. Of course, I’ve heard things. I’ve heard things in many different directions but, again, without me hearing it directly from AEW, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.”
“I’ve always considered GCW and AEW to be on the same team. So, I don’t know if this is meant to punish Ricky Starks, is it meant to punish GCW, is it somewhere in-between? I just don’t know because again, I just don’t have that line of communication. It certainly doesn’t feel great. I would love to know if there is something that we should have done or something we should be doing or whatever. But we got to the point where this stuff was agreed upon and announced and fans were looking forward to this. So whenever that happens, to promote something and then have to pull it back, it’s not ideal.”
Shortly after Starks was pulled from GCW shows, Fightful reported that comments made by GCW’s Effy on his podcast regarding Tony Khan’s father, Shad Khan, played a role in the decision. Effy said on his show, “Brett (Lauderdale) does not own a football team. Brett doesn’t have a dad who pays him to stay away. I don’t want this to be a personal thing. I don’t, but hey guys, you aren’t the only game in town.”
Lauderdale responded:
“I don’t get to regularly tune into Effy’s podcast, so I wasn’t really aware of anything that would be considered too controversial that he would have said. I’ve only heard snippets now since I’ve read that. And you know, what Effy says is Effy’s opinion and Effy’s an independent wrestler, he’s an independent contractor, he says this stuff on his own personal podcast which is not endorsed or promoted or amplified or platformed by GCW. He’s his own guy.”
“I don’t review what he does. I have no control over Effy. He is absolutely independent, 100 percent.”
Lauderdale’s entire appearance on the show is available below: