On a recent edition of the “Gabby AF” podcast, Ricky Starks weighed in on his AEW World Tag Team Title run with Big Bill.
Starks and Bill have held the titles since October 2023, and the former FTW Champion noted that he doesn’t consider themselves as a pure tag team. Starks said,
“You know, me and Big Bill came together after All In with me as a manager and him as, me managing him, and then it turning into a tag team. It’s been fun, it’s been very cool to see how things have escalated. Me personally though, I always tell people that we aren’t a tag team. Yes we’re the Tag Team Champions, but we’re still singles wrestlers because I don’t want someone to think like — at the end of the day, he is a great dude to be with.”
He continued, “We are just two co-workers just making it by. We’re tag team champions and we’ve really made something out of nothing and I think that’s something to be said for both of us in terms of our talent and ability. Yeah, I think people like it. They still wish that I was a singles competitor, but what we have right now, me and Big Bill, we’re making it pretty awesome I think.”
On a recent edition of the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Bully Ray critiqued Samoa Joe vs. HOOK from this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
Joe defeated HOOK to retain the AEW World Title on Wednesday’s show, though the FTW Champion was able to kick out of Joe’s signature moves and became unconscious rather than tapping out.
Ray said, “I was not a fan of how ‘easily’ HOOK was able to get up after the match, get out of the ring on his own, walk up the ramp, walk back down the ramp. No help. No nothing. On one hand, we have Joe hitting HOOK with everything but the kitchen sink. The kid got choked out, and I don’t know many guys who get choked out, and then after they get choked out, they’re just totally fine and walking up the ramp and down the ramp, no assistance. I would have liked to have seen HOOK [get] helped out … Last night was very heavy-handed on HOOK. I felt Taz was heavy-handed on HOOK on commentary early in the match, almost like, ‘I’m trying to get my kid over.’”
Dave LaGreca felt that moment would have “grabbed everyone by the heartstrings” if AEW had signed off Dynamite with that. Bully Ray later said that AEW would be foolish if they didn’t build on HOOK’s memorable performance on Wednesday night. He then spoke about a potential rematch between Joe and HOOK. He said,
“After everything that I saw last night, if HOOK and Joe were to have a rematch, HOOK could not be beat by any of [Joe’s] moves now. He’s already proven that Joe couldn’t beat him… If Joe says, ‘That kid’s got heart. That kid took everything I had and he…’ Remember when Tony, Apollo Creed’s trainer, told Apollo — I’m getting goosebumps, man — when he said, ‘Champ, that man, you hit that man with everything you had, and he kept coming back.’ … So if Joe says it, in a Joe, heel, bad mothertr*cker way, wow. Now the kid’s over.”
