A two-time WWE champion who previously competed in AEW recently shared his feelings about being absent from All Elite Wrestling programming for several months.
That star is Ricky Saints (formerly Ricky Starks in AEW). Saints, a former NXT Champion and NXT North American Champion, left the Jacksonville-based promotion in 2025 to join WWE in February of that year. However, the Absolute had been off AEW TV for nearly a year before his upcoming debut with the Stamford-based promotion, with his last in-ring appearance in Tony Khan‘s promotion taking place in March 2024. Ricky has now addressed this gap in his resume.
Speaking in an interview with Adam Silverstein on the Getting Over podcast, Saints said that although there was restlessness due to not much, everything ended up working out for the better.
“No real discussion or anything like that from my side of it in terms of what was discussed. There was some restlessness just because I’m so used to wrestling all the time. I think that’s the type of person I am. I’m used to creating and using my body for these things. To not have that was a very odd place to be at mentally. You’re having to figure out these other things, especially when it comes to the independents. It was not as easy to get some of these independent dates cleared…At the end of the day it all worked. I’m thankful for both sides. I’m thankful for AEW and the independents,” said Ricky [H/T: Fightful]
Ricky Saints says recent photo of ex-AEW stars backstage in WWE was not a shot at Tony Khan’s promotion
An intriguing photo from November 2025 at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event went viral, featuring CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill, and Ricky Saints. There were two things in common among the stars involved: one, they were all World champions (Saints was NXT champion at the time), and two, all four were ex-AEW stars. The latter led many to believe that this photo was taken as a shot at All Elite Wrestling. However, in a recent interview, Saints clarified that there was no agenda behind the photo.
Speaking with the New York Post, the former NXT champion said:
“It was all just circumstance. It wasn’t like a deliberate thing and Punk wanted a picture, so I said, ‘Hey, why not?’.. There was no ill will about it. We all know each other, we all like each other, and it was a cool moment. Look at us, we’re all champions right now. Whatever agenda people want to apply to it is up to them.” [H/T – F4WOnline]
It will be interesting to see when the Absolute will make his main roster debut in WWE.
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Edited by Karan Raj
