Tony Khan on Ricky Starks: ‘I’d love to get him involved and back in AEW’

Tony Khan says he’d love to have Ricky Starks back involved in AEW.

When asked about Starks’ recent absence from the promotion during an interview with CBS Sports, Khan praised the role Starks played in Sting’s retirement, which included wrestling in Sting’s final televised match on the February 7 episode of Dynamite. Starks and Big Bill dropped the tag titles to Darby Allin and Sting on the show.

“I really like Ricky Starks a lot,” Khan said. “The last time we saw him here was in the World Tag Team championship tournament. He and Big Bill formed a great team. They were the World Tag Team Champions, they had a great run, and it culminated in the last televised match of the legendary career of the icon Sting. I think it was a huge thing that Ricky and Bill, that their run culminated in such an important match.”

Starks hasn’t wrestled for AEW since his match with Bill against Top Flight on the March 30 Collision was stopped early when Starks appeared to be hurt after a Pele kick from Darius Martin. However, Starks would post to Instagram the following day to say he was “all good” and was just being precautions.

“We talk about five years of AEW, and maybe to me the most special part of that three-year run of Sting, what we were able to do to give him, I thought, the greatest send-off ever in wrestling and Ricky’s a huge part of that,” Khan continued.

Starks would later tell WhatCulture that he has “no clue” why he hasn’t been on TV since his match on March 30.

“I think Ricky Starks is tremendous. I’d love to get him involved and back in AEW anytime. He’s been a huge part of what we’ve done here for about four out of the five years,” Khan added.

Starks’ absence from AEW programming was addressed by our own Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

“Starks was out of action for a time with an injury suffered in the match with Top Flight where Starks lost the match they were supposed to win after being shaken up. At one point there was a plan to have Big Bill turn on Starks and make him a babyface but that didn’t end up happening. One report was that it was his decision, but the only thing is that it didn’t happen,” Meltzer wrote.