AEW Told Ricky Starks To Be Grateful For His Job After CM Punk’s Exit

During a recent appearance on the “Insight” podcast, Ricky Starks discussed his first promo following CM Punk’s unceremonious departure from AEW and mentioned that he was instructed to appreciate the fact that he had a job.

At that time, Starks was involved in a rivalry with Punk and quickly transitioned to facing Bryan Danielson.

Starks said, “Before I went out, I was nervous, but I guess I didn’t really realize what was about to happen. I was so frustrated in such a beautiful and organic way. The day before, Tony comes out and announces that Punk is gone. I actually opened that show with a promo. Watch the promo. Very good, and you can kind of tell what’s happening. I was so frustrated about things happening the way they have. I’ll never forget someone telling me, ‘Just be grateful that you even have a job.’ I’ll never forget feeling like, ‘How dare you.’ Don’t tell me to be grateful for something that I’ve worked very hard for. That saying, ‘I know that you’re hungry for a dinner. Here is a half-eaten loaf of bread. Let me take that back. Here are the crumbs.’ F**k you. Don’t tell me to be grateful for something. You don’t live my life and understand the things I’ve gone through to get in this moment. It really set me off. When it came to Sunday, I was looking forward to it, but I didn’t realize what laid ahead of me and what I was going to be capable of what I was doing. Bryan had that injury too and we had to deal with that.”

Effy will take Ricky Starks’ place in the match against Matt Cardona at GCW’s Highest In The Room 3.

As we previously reported here on eWn, AEW has pulled Starks from his upcoming appearances in GCW. Starks was scheduled to wrestle Cardona on December 14, and on Friday, GCW announced that Effy would fill in for him in the match.

You can check out the official announcement below:

*LA UPDATE*

Just Signed:

MATT CARDONA
vs
EFFY

Plus:
Josh Barnett vs Royce Isaacs
Matthew Justice v Dr Redacted
Zara Zakher v Brooke Havok
Mance Warner
Megan Bayne
Dereiss
Desperados

Tix:https://t.co/mzIr3TiW7h

Watch LIVE on @FiteTV+
Sat 12/14 – 8PM pic.twitter.com/cvCiCxI120

— GameChangerWrestling (@GCWrestling_) November 29, 2024