AEW: Ricky Starks on Strap Match with Bryan Danielson, Kris Statlander on Wanting More Time for Women’s Division, More News

Nov 2, 2023

Ricky Starks Comments on “Overwhelming” Reaction to His Strap Match at AEW All Out 2023

A recent episode of the Black Rasslin’ Podcast featured Ricky Starks as the guest. One of the comments discussed included Starks’ thoughts on the “overwhelming” positive reaction to his Strap Match against Bryan Danielson at AEW’s All Out 2023 event this past September.

“The Strap match (with Bryan Danielson stands out for me this year). The Strap match, while — here’s the truth about it: That the circumstances leading up to the Strap match was very chaotic and a point of frustration for me. If you saw that Collision, I went out and started the show with a very heartfelt message that I wanted to get to people and it wasn’t me whining and complaining. It was more of a message of look, even somebody like me, even somebody who is dedicated and puts in the work, takes the steps back due to outside sources, right? That match in itself was — I had no expectations for it. Didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I thought Bryan is a great dude. Didn’t realize his arm was still kind of injured or something so that was something to keep in mind and afterwards, the reception of it was so overwhelming for me that on the flight home, I was looking through my text messages and it’s just a lot of people, a lot of people were just like, ‘Man! That was amazing’ and boom, boom and it really touched something into me where I kind of found myself again a bit. Not saying that I lost myself, but something that was dormant kind of woke back up, right? And I felt so inspired and you know, was just moved by it because I didn’t have any expectations about it and I went out there and I gave it a thousand percent and I put everything that I had into it to the point where I was just so exhausted and there’s a promo that I cut after that, it was four minutes long and they didn’t really use it. They chopped it up a bit but I really hope that they post it one day because you see me in the rawest form and once you see it, I think you’ll get a lot of — that’s what I mean by being misunderstood. You know all the things that people don’t get? That’s what I’m referring to. (It) isn’t about just woe is me. It’s more than that, it’s more than just wrestling. But, that match itself is so great and it’s hard. When you have great matches like that, it’s hard to — you have the need to try to top it. But some things just can’t be topped. Some things are at its pinnacle point and they exist there and then you can have another space to put it right by, you know, next to it. You never need to have to take one out and replace it. That’s why an egg carton has as many (holders) as it has…”

Starks also gave his thoughts about his current pairing with Big Bill as a tag team in AEW.

“Me and Big Bill barely know each other. He don’t even know my birthday, I don’t know his. But we get along and we’re Tag Team Champions, you know what I’m saying? That’s the beauty of it. I barely know this man from Schmit and we are Tag Team Champions and we got people who are literal blood brothers, people who have been friends for 10 years, they can’t win a match to save their life. So, that’s that but Bill is great. I think Bill is cool as hell. I’m getting to know him. We got together, saw him at an airport, had a cup of coffee. I said, ‘You cool man. I’ll catch you at work’ and that’s how it started. From what I know and I talk to him and stuff like that, he’s got some good style. Check out the Timbs.
I just found out he was engaged maybe an hour ago. I didn’t even know that.
I’m not a tag team wrestler. I’m the Tag Team Champion, but I’m not a tag team wrestler and I want that to be clear and that’s the same thing with Bill. Bill isn’t a tag team wrestler. We are two singles guys that have come together under some weird circumstances, starting at All In but, we made it and we’re doing the damn thing…”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Kris Statlander Comments on Wanting More Time for AEW’s Women’s Division & Fans to Keeping Using Their Voice to Help

A recent episode of the Ring The Belle podcast featured Kris Statlander as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Statlander’s thoughts about wanting more time for AEW’s Women’s Division and be viewed as more than just a special attraction for AEW shows.

“I think there’s always going to be a desire for more. I think everyone is always left wanting more and wondering what could happen if we were given more. I hate to think that the women are just like a niche or a special attraction type thing because my whole career, before AEW was even a thing, all I ever said was that I wanted to be a great wrestler. Not a ‘great women’s wrestler,’ I wanted to be a great wrestler. I do wish that we could get more time because I do feel if we’re given time, with the right people, we’re gonna put on a show that no one’s ever gonna forget. That’s just life, though.
We’re just always gonna keep fighting an uphill battle no matter what we do, not just in wrestling, but in all of life because that’s just what happens when you’re a woman sometimes. I like to think that there are people that have our backs. I know that there are people that have our backs, and the more people show that they want to see us, the more that we’re going to get to do. [Speaking up is] the best that you can do. Just speak up and prove that you want to see us because we want to be there for you and we want to do anything that we can to put on a show for you guys.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

AEW News & Notes

The Hollywood Reporter recently named MJF as one of Hollywood’s next generation of action stars for his acting work in the upcoming The Iron Claw film about legendary wrestling family The Von Erichs.

MJF broke the all-time record for longest ever reign as AEW World Champion in AEW history at 347 days and counting on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 346 days held by Kenny Omega from December 2, 2020 to November 13, 2021.

Yukes recently released a new patch for AEW Fight Forever fixing several gameplay-related issues and bugs and adding several new items for the game’s Create-A-Wrestler mode.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Britt Baker was in attendance backstage at Wednesday’s Dynamite show in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to her appearance, Baker had been absent from the company for the past several weeks.

Fightful Select also reported that their sources stated that Serena Deeb was in attendance backstage at this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Uncasville, Connecticut. This was the second time in three weeks that Deeb was in attendance backstage at a Collision show following her being absent from the company since October of 2022.

AEW reportedly gave a tryout to indie referee Gina Monti last week for a potential referee job in the company, according to Fightful Select.

AEW recently released a new music video based on Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” song featuring Doja Cat and a montage of stars from their Women’s Division. In regards to the production of the music video, Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that AEW had filmed the video a couple of weeks ago.

In a recent interview with the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast, former AEW talent Sonny Kiss gave her thoughts about when she first found out that her contract with AEW was not going to be renewed and being grateful for the financial help Tony Khan provided during her time in the company. Kiss stated “That was a very emotional time, especially like it still is to this day. Like, I still think about it, of course, it still feels very fresh. But when that happened, and I was going to Chicago and I did the Effy’s Gay Brunch and all throughout all of that it was very, like… I felt like everybody was staring at me and wondering how I was feeling. And I think they were trying to pick my brain and see what was going on. Like, why was I no longer there, it was just a lot. It was super emotional for me. I did, and I want to say this too, I am so grateful for Tony Khan. Tony Khan has always been great to me in the sense of …first of all, he helped pay my bills during a global pandemic . You know, there’s so many great things about Tony Khan and people expect me to say something negative about him, but no he’s given me my life… he gave me stability in my life. Like I said he helped pay my bills during a time where a lot of people were not, you know, things weren’t so uncertain. So, yeah, no, I’m forever grateful for Tony Khan.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone reflected about Toni Storm’s segment at this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show involving Storm lying accross the announcer’s table and pulling a clementine out of her skirt to eat and giving another one to Schiavone who was sitting in full view of her rear end. Schiavone stated “Well, I knew that Toni was going to do something on the table. I thought she was going to sit on the table, but she yanked the top off, stared at me, and then just laid right on the table with her rear end right in my face. So, now I’ve got a girl’s rear end in my face and I’ve got to play it straight. Then, she had two oranges, right? She flipped me one, if I recall, or handed me one, I ended up with one. Then, she bit the other orange, and she bit real hard into it, and boom. Orange juice squirted in my face.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

AEW recently announced one new match for the card of this Friday’s Rampage show that was taped on Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky: