WWE: Backstage Update on Reason for Ricky Starks’ Ring Name Change to Ricky Saints, Meiko Satomura Reportedly to Attend NXT Roadblock 2025, Cody Rhodes Pitched Heel Turn Plan Update, More News

Mar 9, 2025

Backstage Update on Reason for Ricky Starks’ Ring Name Change to Ricky Saints in WWE

As noted before, the February 18th episode of WWE NXT featured former AEW talent Ricky Starks revealing his new ring name of “Ricky Saints” for his WWE career.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that the reason for Saints’ ring name change was due to several WWE officials were of the belief that they could not get the clear rights to the “Ricky Starks” name for him to use in their company. Sapp reported that this was not an issue related to AEW since Saints had used the “Ricky Starks” name long before he had joined AEW.

Meiko Satomura Reportedly Scheduled to Attend NXT Roadblock 2025

WWE recently released a video on Twitter featuring wrestling legend Mekio Satomura recently making a visit to their WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan reported that his sources stated that the reason for Satomura’s visit was to participate in a photoshoot with current NXT Women’s Champion Giulia.

Brennan reported that those spoken to stated that Satomura is currently scheduled to be in attendance at this Tuesday’s NXT Roadblock 2025 show at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Brennan also reported that it is currently not known if Satomura will be making an appearance on television as part of the show.

Satomura last appeared in WWE at their NXT Roadblock 2023 show in March of 2023.

Backstage Update on The Rock’s Pitched Idea to Cody Rhodes for Heel Turn

As noted before, WWE’s Elimination Chamber 2025 event earlier this month featured John Cena making a surprise heel turn after attacking Cody Rhodes and aligning himself with the “Final Boss” The Rock. The original plans for this heel turn moment was for Rhodes to be the one to turn heel but was dropped over Rhodes rejecting the idea.

Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer’s report about a pitch was made to Rhodes for him to turn heel and align with the Rock and that Rhodes had turned it down. Those spoken to reportedly also confirmed that this heel turn plan was then presented to Cena who agreed with The Rock and was fully on board with the plan for the storyline.

It was reported that the idea for Rhodes to turn heel was part of WWE officials normal planning for WrestleMania to generate buzz. It was also reported that those close to Rhodes were not aware that a pitch was made to him for a heel turn.

It was also reported that WWE officials had already created storyline plans as far back as this past November for Rhodes to defend his Undisputed WWE Championship against Cena at WrestleMania 41.

WWE News & Notes

WWE recently revealed the next match in their on-going countdown of their Top 50 matches in WrestleMania history. The 40th spot was the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Triple Threat match of Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar (c) from WrestleMania 31.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel. This new video was the full November 4, 1985 episode of NWA World Championship Wrestling.

WWE reportedly drew an attendance of 36,953 for their March 1st Elimination Chamber 2025 event at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that the event’s attendance was the fifth largest ever for a wrestling event in Canada, behind WrestleMania VI, WrestleMania X8, the February 8, 1999 WWE RAW show, and the 1986 Hulk Hogan vs Paul Orndorff match event. Meltzer reported that the gate for this year’s event was the largest ever for a pro wrestling event in Canada.

2K Games released their WWE 2K25 video game on March 7th for those who had purchased the special editions of the game. This launch was notable for players encountering several gameplay and stability bugs and issues with the biggest being a major bug preventing many players from being able to play the MyRISE game mode. 2K Games’ 2K Support recently stated on Twitter that they are aware and currently investigating the issue regarding the game’s MyRise mode.

In a recent response to a fan question on Twitter, Asuka stated that her choice for a retirement match would be for it to take place at a WrestleMania event in the Tokyo Dome and for her to come out riding on Godzilla’s back. This fan stated “If a Booker tells you ‘ Asuka you can choose to have your very last match at either WrestleMania or at the Tokyo Dome ‘ which one you prefer?” Asuka responded stating “Easy. Tokyo Dome… but only if it’s WrestleMania and I enter on Godzilla’s back. 🦖🔥😈“

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, WWE NXT talent Stephanie Vaquer gave her thoughts about how CMLL was the hardest time she had in a company and the difference compared to her current time in WWE. Vaquer stated “CMLL. Because in CMLL, when you’re new, they say, okay, you’re new…good luck. See you in the ring. You’re so nervous…[but] now I feel really good because here in WWE is a teamwork. I can ask, and I can take, you can help me. I can ask. But in CMLL, nobody help you. You’re alone. No teamwork. If you know wrestling, yeah, wrestle, and nobody’s…training, ‘Oh, you can teach me.’ No. You can say nothing, you can do nothing. You can ask nothing. Yeah, [it was] scary all the time. I cried every day, and I’m training every day. The first year, so difficult for me because I’m the new…I cry every day after the training. I cry every day because you can ask, you can, ‘Please help me,’ [but] no help.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast, current TNA World Champion Joe Hendry gave his thoughts about the fan support behind his Men’s Royal Rumble match appearance at this past January’s WWE Royal Rumble 2025 event. Hendry stated “It is kind of scary sometimes when I think about, I have delivered on kind of every single thing that I’ve hinted at over the last couple years. It’s been a wild journey. Look, I take a lot of what I say from the meet and greets. So every meet and greet I did for well over a year was, ‘You gonna be in the Rumble? Are you gonna be in the Rumble? Are you gonna be in the Rumble?’ It’s like that Simpsons episode where they’re like, ‘Can you take us to Mount Splashmore? Can you take us to Mount Splashmore?’ That was what I got every single time. So it was one of those things where, if the fan base are calling for it, then I’m gonna start steering into it because that’s the formula. The formula is going, what are people saying? What do people want? What might be feasible? The crazy thing is I hinted at it a few times, but I didn’t know about the Rumble until the week of. It’s been an awesome experience. I continue to say outrageous things, so we’ll see whether they happen or not.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)