Ricky Saints on His Long AEW Abscense Before Leaving for WWE & Being Thankful For His Time in AEW

A recent episode of the Getting Over: Wrestling Podcast featured Ricky Saints, former Ricky Starkz in AEW, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Saints’ thoughts about his lengthy abscense from AEW from March of 2024 until his departure from the company in February of 2025 and him working in the indies during his abscense from the company. Saints also gave his thoughts about how he was still thankful for his time in AEW.

“Yeah, no. You know, no real discussion or anything like that from my side of it, in terms you know, what was discussed and all that, but there was some restlessness just because I’m so used to wrestling all the time. And I think that’s the type of person I am.

I’m used to creating. I’m used to using my body for these things. And to not have that was a very odd place to be at mentally. And so you’re having to figure out these other things, especially when it goes to like the independence. It was not as easy to get some of these independent dates cleared.

And for that’s not a knock on the company itself. It’s just a conflict of interest for AEW and whatever independent that I wanted to do. Um, but at the end of the day, it all worked out. Truthfully,  it all worked out. And I’m thankful for both sides. I’m thankful for AEW. I’m thankful for the Independence as well.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com