Ricky Starks: Being In There With CM Punk Makes Me A Better Person

Ricky Starks has enjoyed mixing it up with CM Punk in All Elite Wrestling.

2023 Men’s Owen Hart Cup winner Ricky Starks recently sat down with Alicia Atout. When asked what it’s been like to work with CM Punk in recent weeks on AEW Collision, Starks said he believes it’s been really good for him to mix it up with someone with Punk’s experience.

“It’s been really good for me,” Ricky Starks said. “I feel like I have a renewed sense of myself, and I have a renewed sense of something of substance type thing. And I remember back then when he was facing 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’s 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. 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 to 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. Who am I to — 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.”

Ricky Starks will challenge CM Punk for the “Real World Championship” later tonight on AEW Collision.