Ricky Starks Comments on Future of His Wrestling Career at Friday’s HOG Event in Chicago
Friday’s Watch The Throne event for House of Glory in Chicago, Illinois featured Mike Santana defeating Ricky Starks by disqualification to retain his HOG World Heavyweight Championship.
Near the end of the match, The Cold Blooded Killers and Charles Mason came out to the ring and attacked Santana resulting in the referee calling for the bell. Following the match, Starks helped Santana fight off Mason and The Cold Blooded Killers and cleared the ring of them. After some words by Santana directed towards Mason and CBK, Starks grabbed the microphone and gave a speech to the live crowd thanking those who have shown support towards him and gave his thoughts about the future of his wrestling career.
“Every time I grab [a microphone], I somehow get in trouble. So I’m gonna say it as plainly as this, I cannot thank each and every one of you. I’ve been reading your messages, asking if I’m mentally okay, asking if I’m good, checking on me. You don’t know me, but that’s the thing about this wrestling shit, it don’t matter. We’re all a part of one thing. I have loved wrestling since I was seven. I told my mom I would buy her a house off of this, and damn it, I have done that, and I am close to giving her anything else that she wants. I don’t take anything easy. I take it the hard way. I take things the way that I want to. If the road ain’t paved with cement, guess what? I guess I’m putting on my construction hat, and I’m going to work. If you thought that I was somebody less than a year ago, guess what? You’re sadly mistaken because I have evolved to a man four years from today, and that’s saying something because a lot of y’all, a lot of y’all have not seen anything yet from me. With the last dying breath in this New Orleans heart, I tell you this, I’m gonna stay Absolute ‘til I d-i-e. You heard? You best believe that I’m gonna make sure I make a quick trip back here to Chicago.”
Ricky Starks after his match with Santana tonight, thanks the fans and everyone for all the messages and for checking up on him.
— 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐕𝐞𝐧 (@WrestlingCovers) January 18, 2025
“A lot of y’all have not seen anything yet from me.”
pic.twitter.com/eX7bCJf0BS
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com
Billie Starkz Pulled from Jan. 18th Event for Limitless Wrestling Over Injury Issue
Limitless Wrestling recently announced that they have pulled Billie Starkz from their upcoming The Great Divide event on Saturday in Yarmouth, Maine due to her recently suffering an injury.
It was also announced that Tiara James will be replacing Starkz for her scheduled match against Gabby Forza at the event.
𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Due to injury, Billie Starkz has been forced to withdraw from competition tomorrow night in Yarmouth.
— Limitless Wrestling (@LWMaine) January 17, 2025
“Top Tier” TIARA JAMES will now make her Limitless debut taking Billie’s place against “Your Homie The Gnomie” Gabby Forza!
🎟️ TIX: https://t.co/jQrrJTbL1j pic.twitter.com/8jWjtTe2Kg
No other details were given regarding the nature of Starkz’s injury.
Misc. Wrestling News & Notes
DEFY Wrestling recently announced that Swerve Strickland and AEW referee Aubrey Edwards will be making an appearance for the company at their Hundredth – 8 Year Anniversary event on February 7th in Seattle, Washington.
Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that their upcoming The People vs. GCW event on January 19th at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, New York will be featuring additional bonus matches and a free kickoff show starting at 6:30PM EST on their official YouTube channel.
GCW and indies talent Brandon Kirk recently announced on Twitter that his upcoming match at GCW’s The People vs. GCW event on January 19th at the Hammerstein Ballroom will be his final match for his wrestling career. Kirk is currently scheduled to compete in a 7-Way DLC match for the vacant GCW Ultraviolent Championship and GCW Extreme Championship.
Sumerian studios recently released a new trailer video for their upcoming Queen of the Ring film based on wrestling legend Mildred Burke.
As noted before, former wrestler Tammy Sytch was sentenced to over 17 years in prison this past November following her being convicted of the charges against her over a fatal car accident involving Sytch in March of 2022. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Volusia County, Florida Circuit Court Judge Karen A. Foxman issued a ruling on January 14th denying Sytch’s request to have her prison sentences changed to run concurrently based on recent court records.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that several Sportsnet 360 officials spoken to stated that they privately were expecting TNA Wrestling’s ratings for their Impact! shows on their network to generate similar numbers to AEW’s shows in Canada. Meltzer reported that those officials likely are not fond over TNA’s ratings for their shows on the network in Canada not coming anywhere close to it. Meltzer reported that AEW’s Collision show on January 11th drew 69,000 viewers and Dynamite show on January 15th drew 89,500 viewers on the newly rebranded USA Network in Canada.
This past Sunday’s NJPW Battle in the Valley event featured Sumie Sakai officially retiring from her wrestling career following a Six-Person Tag Team match between Sakai & House of Torture (SHO & EVIL) and Hiromu Takahashi, Mayu Iwatani, & Yuka Sakazaki. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the reason why SHO, EVIL, and Takahashi were chosen for Sakai’s retirement match was due their past connection with Sakai. Meltzer reported that Sakai had helped them out during their excursion to the United States for Ring of Honor.
In a recent interview with BodySlam.net, Stardom talent Thekla gave her thought about her match against Athena for the ROH Women’s World Championship at this past Sunday’s Stardom’s New Year Stars 2025 event. Thekla stated “I have to say despite the loss this has been a brilliant year so far. I really can’t complain, it’s very busy. I don’t have time to recall anything but it’s really good and how I like it. The exhibition was phenomenal, so many people from all over the world came. Athena is very tough but being able to compete for a Ring of Honor championship with her is massive and from now it’s just going to go up.“
In a recent interview with AdFreeShows’ Rumor & Innuendo podcast, Nic Nemeth gave his thoughts about his current run in TNA Wrestling and WWE and TNA recently signing a new multi-year working partnership deal. Nemeth stated “I’ve been blown away by the locker room. I’ve been really excited for this upcoming year. Now with this announcement, we’ve kind of been working with WWE off and on for a little while, and now to have this official announcement, I really think it’s positive for both companies because it really opens the door for anyone showing up anywhere else at any time and having it hopefully make sense, but also having that surprise aspect to it. So whether it’s an NXT, Royal Rumble, an iMPACT!, Genesis on Sunday, you don’t know what’s gonna happen, and I think that’s one of the coolest parts of being a wrestling fan.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Devotion Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Tussle Time XVII event on January 25th in Ogden, Utah:
- WWE ID match – Jack Cartwheel vs. Jordan Oasis