Ricky Saints, formerly known as Ricky Starks reunited with CM Punk ahead of his NXT in-ring debut.
Starks debuted on the February 11th episode of WWE NXT, and his new name, Ricky Starks, was not revealed until the following week’s episode. By signing with WWE, he joined Punk, Ethan Page, and other stars he previously worked with in AEW.
Ahead of the February 25th episode of WWE NXT, Punk shared a picture that he took with Ricky Saints.
Punk posted the picture on his Instagram Stories and said they were a “couple of saints.”
Saints and Punk worked closely together in AEW, and they had a memorable feud in 2023. They were set to face each other at AEW All Out, but Punk’s contract was terminated after a backstage incident at AEW All In, so the match didn’t happen. Punk then returned to WWE in November 2023.
On the February 25th episode of WWE NXT, Saints will make his in-ring debut in a tag team match. He and Je’Von Evans will face Wes Lee and Ethan Page.
Ricky Saints On CM Punk
During an interview with WhatCulture Wrestling, Saints previously discussed how CM Punk had a big part in his presentation on AEW Collision in 2023.
“[CM] Punk was very instrumental in my presentation on Collision. There’s a video clip that constantly gets reshared. Where the Pyro is going off, and exploding, and blah blah blah. That was all Punk’s idea. Punk had a vision for trying to help out certain people. And getting along. I do remember a conversation with him where he was like, ‘You know, it’s really up to you to swim. Sink or swim.’ And I felt like, I put a lot of stress on myself. And pressure on myself. To constantly outperform my last match that I had.
“Just to prove that if he was going to put his name on so to speak or be the one to push for me, then I needed to do my part and make sure I never let that down. And it was the same thing when I had the tag match with the Bucks. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t let the Bucks down. Or with Sting. It’s those things. Punk was very instrumental in making sure, hey, we should try to do something different with this dude.”
“And you can have your opinions on him and all that. But don’t… You shouldn’t vilify someone for thinking differently than you. You get what I’m saying? And I will say that till I’m blue in the face. He really went out of his way to really try and make something on that Collision show for me. And I feel like we were… It was working and I feel like we were really on to something. And I think that’s why that Strap Match with Bryan really means a lot. Because it just felt like the things that I had learned was like coming to a head of like, ‘Here we go.’ Yeah, he was a great dude. And I still think Punk is a good dude in my opinion. He’s helped… He tried to help a lot of us on that show. And I can always be thankful for that,” Ricky Starks said.
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