Starks admits that not working with Punk early in his AEW run made him ‘feel some type of way.’
Headlining the August 5th episode of AEW Collision is Ricky Starks challenging CM Punk for what Punk is calling the ‘real’ AEW World Championship that he was never pinned or submitted for. The special guest referee for the bout is Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat.
As Starks was speaking to Alicia Atout for an interview, he dove into his program with Punk. It has given him a renewed sense of substance. Starks added that he was not necessarily pleased that he did not get to work with Punk in the ring during his early AEW run.
Ricky stressed how important it is to him to be in the ring with people better than him and going on the mic with those who could destroy him in that department.
It’s been really good for me I feel like (Starks said about working with CM Punk on Collision). I have a renewed sense of myself and I have a renewed sense of, you know, something of substance type thing and I remember back then when he had all these — he was facing (Powerhouse) Hobbs and all these other people and I was like, ‘Damn, what about me?’ I did feel some type of way because in my mind, it is great to wrestle somebody with that type of experience. I don’t think people realize Punk is one of the few guys that have gone from the independents of the old, went through the transition of WWE and that whole system. Then went into the other transition of when it was really corporate WWE and now he’s here. He’s one of the very few. Him, Bryan (Danielson), 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 just because iron sharpens iron and I think being in there with Punk obviously makes me a better person because in my head, there’s a lot of pressure that I put on myself to step up the plate so to speak. As they say on the internet, it’s sink or swim and I’ve been swimming quite a bit. So, it’s great, it really is and these are things that are needed. It’s cool to wrestle someone that’s on the same level as me, but I really don’t want that. I want to wrestle someone that is way better than me, that is beyond my years, you know what I’m saying? And I feel like everybody should strive for that. I want to wrestle someone that definitely could eat my lunch. I would love that. I would want to be on the mic against someone that could destroy me. Let’s do it, let’s see how that goes.
Hosting the 8/5 Collision review here on POST Wrestling is Nate Milton and Kate from Montreal. They’ll be live after the show goes off the air.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Alicia Atout with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
