Ricky Starks on Adam Copeland’s ‘Rock ripoff’ comment: It wasn’t me who came off looking bad

  • Ian Carey
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Ricky Starks doesn’t believe he came off looking bad during a promo segment with Adam Copeland last year.

On the October 13, 2023, edition of AEW Dynamite, the two exchanged words during an in-ring promo segment. Starks called Copeland “bug-eyed,” and Copeland responded by calling Starks a “vanilla midget” and a ripoff of The Rock. 

During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Starks addressed the segment and people comparing him to The Rock.

Starks said:

“I think it’s pretty well known who my favorite wrestler was. The Rock was cool. I liked The Rock. He was cool. But this is how I do it. I can’t help the way that I look. I’m a handsome motherf*cker. That’s just how it is, and that’s a respectable thing. My style, as you know, even before we started filming is I had a Garth Brooks shirt on. I like what I like, and I wear what I like. It’s nothing to do with ripping somebody off and I would be honest if I was doing that. I am an improvement on a design straight from the city of New Orleans. If you had to say that I copy anyone, I’m copying the people of New Orleans, absolutely, that’s who I am.”

Starks then addressed Copeland, calling him a ripoff of The Rock last year. 

“Do you know what he called me? Do you remember? He called me a vanilla midget Rock ripoff. That clip goes viral all the time, and it’s so funny because at the end of it, I wanted to say more but if you see me smile and say ‘Oh, that really sent me over the edge,’..I only did that because I knew this thing was going to get off track.”

“You might as well call me a great heel because I got somebody so flustered on live TV that they stumbled and stuttered their way into one of the worst insults that you could say, that’s so passe, so 2000. A vanilla midget?” he continued.

“Personally, I don’t think that Ricky Starks came out of that looking very bad, you know what I’m saying? I think it wasn’t me that looked bad in that whole situation and so it is what it is.”

Starks then said that he didn’t go off script during the promo because there was never a script to begin with. 

“There was no script. Ricky Starks going off-script? How is that possible if there’s no script to begin with? So to speak. I didn’t say anything crazy. I just called someone bug eyes. What’s wrong with that? That’s like, how is that any different than someone calling someone fat? Am I missing the point here?”

Starks’ full interview with Chris Van Vliet is available below.