Ricky Saints relinquishes Defy World title following WWE NXT debut
Following his WWE NXT arrival, Ricky Saints has had to relinquish Defy Wrestling’s World Championship belt.
The Seattle-based indie promotion announced today that their World Championship is now vacant — and a new champion will be crowned in their Super 8XGP tournament on Saturday, March 15. Participants and matchups for the tournament have not been announced yet but will be soon.
The former Ricky Starks sent in a video announcing the news, which he called “bittersweet.”
“I wanted to give a quick message to the fans of Defy. It is an honor and privilege to be your Defy World Champion, and it was a big goal of mine to do just that when I defeated KENTA,” Saints said. “But, unfortunately, when opportunity knocks — I must answer. And as everyone probably knows by now, I definitely answered that knock. And it is bittersweet because I have to relinquish the Defy World title.”
Saints only had a three-week reign as champion, winning the belt from KENTA on February 7 and making no title defenses. He was released from his AEW contract on February 10 after several months of questions about his status amid an absence from AEW programming.
Just one day after being let out of his AEW contract, Saints debuted for WWE on NXT. His first match then happened on NXT this past Tuesday with Saints & Je’Von Evans defeating Wes Lee & Ethan Page.
“While my reign and my time at Defy may have been short-lived, I hope and I pray that the memories to come will long supersede that,” Saints said. “So, until next time, stay Absolute.”