Ricky Starks will be part of DEFY‘s eighth anniversary show.
KENTA will defend the DEFY World Championship at their DEFY Hundredth event on February 7. This comes after Starks made a surprise appearance at DEFY Blueprint on December 29 and got in KENTA’s face after his match with Schaff.
Starks remains under contract with AEW, but he has not appeared on AEW programming since March 2024. He has started appearing on the independent scene recently. After he appeared at GCW Dream On, his future appearances with the promotion were canceled. Starks has also been announced for House of Glory’s Chicago event in January.
Ricky Starks On His AEW Absence
Starks recently discussed his absence from AEW programming with Chris Van Vliet on Insight. He was asked about the reasoning behind it. Starls noted that he didn’t know. He also called it a “mindf*ck” because he had been at home.
“Beats me. I could have 1,000 theories about what’s really going on,” Starks said. “The fact of the matter is that if I don’t have a definitive answer, I can’t just make up an answer for people and just assume. Would I love to know the exact reason? For sure. Do I have speculations about why? Absolutely. But that does nothing to speak on things that I speculate, does nothing for the situation. So I think it’s just a matter of, it sucks, it’s been a very cold day here in Austin. It’s been a very cold day. May have been cold for the past nine months, not sure. But thankfully, I have a sweater, and I’m always ready to keep the warmth going.”
“It’s kind of a mindf*ck because I’m in my prime and it sucks when you’re on such a momentum, riding the wave, doing work and doing stuff, and then to just be at home for so long, you’re kind of like, whoa. It kind of throws it off. I am not meant to be at home. I’m not meant to be a homebody in this current phase in my life. I’m not meant to be just chilling at home and doing not the thing that I’ve been busting my ass to do for the past 13 years.”
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