Who was the mastermind behind Ricky Starks' beatdown on Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat on AEW Collision? Details revealed
Rising AEW star Ricky Starks has been on a roll lately and is popular among fans. That seems to have caught the attention of a WWE legend, and that man is none other than Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat.
Starks took on CM Punk for the ‘real’ AEW World title on the most recent episode of Collision but ended up losing as Steamboat counted the pin. After the match, an irate Starks took out his frustrations on the WWE legend.
According to Cameron “Ceehawk” Hawkins, the idea for the beatdown came from Steamboat himself. Hawkins was speaking on the Haus of Wrestling podcast when he said:
“A bit of a Collision note. So, in the original finish, like after the match, Ricky Steamboat was gonna chop Starks, and that was going to be it. Ricky Steamboat pulls Rick and Punk into a room and tells them the finish that we saw. It brought Rick to tears because he appreciated it so much. So, salute to Ricky Steamboat for making a good thing, a great thing.”
Hawkins also said that he confirmed the story with Ricky Starks himself, and the AEW star confirmed to him that it was indeed Steamboat’s idea to make him look good.
“Well, I mean, you know, that’s my man (Ricky Starks). So we talked about how things go and, you know, especially after the match, I was like, ‘You killed it.’ He was like, ‘Cam, this is what happened,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool.’ Yeah, man, salute to Steamboat. That’s dope. Because think about how cool and how physical and how visceral that was; Ricky Steamboat’s idea, and his whole thing was, ‘Look, man, this is supposed to make you look good. Not me.” [H/T Haus of Wrestling]
Ricky Starks says working with CM Punk in AEW has helped him
Ricky Starks and former AEW World Champion CM Punk have been involved in a rather bitter feud. It all started when Starks beat Punk to win the AEW Owen Hart Memorial Tournament. Since then, Punk has been targeting Starks, and the angle has been great for viewers.
Starks was recently speaking with Alicia Tout when he said that he liked working with the former WWE Champion and explained how it has been beneficial to him.
Starks said:
"It's been really good for me, I feel like I have a renewed sense of myself, and I have a renewed sense of, like, something of substance. He's one of the very few, him, Bryan [Danielson], you know people like that, that have gone through that system and they know, they've seen all those different phases of wrestling. So it's great to have that just because iron sharpens iron and I think being in there with Punk obviously makes me a better person." [H/T Wrestling Inc]
With an attitude like that, it likely won't be long before Ricky Starks goes to the very top and becomes a major name in AEW.