Ricky Starks Says CM Punk Was A ‘Great Addition’ To The AEW Roster

AEW has not been the same since the incident at All Out back in September, where CM Punk went on a scathing rant on Colt Cabana, Page, and The Young Bucks. The brawl that took place afterwards ended up dominating headlines for several months and had major ramifications for everyone involved. CM Punk remains absent since the incident, and he has many detractors. However, Ricky Starks isn’t one of them, because he believes CM Punk was a great addition to the AEW roster.

CM Punk has been out of action since All Out as he injured his triceps. He underwent surgery for the condition and is currently on the road to recovery. In the meantime, The Elite have returned to AEW television and continue to be a featured act there.

Following the AEW All Out brawl, CM Punk became public enemy #1 and believe that he never should have joined AEW in the first place. While speaking with DAZN.com, Ricky Starks talked about CM Punk calling him out for a match in an earlier promo. While the match never happened, Starks made it clear that he believes Punk was a great addition to the AEW roster.

“The Punk thing helped. Him saying those things about me really helped. What would have been great was to actually have a match with him. Things were kind of leading up to that, I thought; that’s one of the minor things that I’m actually annoyed about is that I never actually got to have a match. It’s not to stroke my own ego, but it’s about iron really sharpening iron. I’m the type of person who would be able to benefit from that, in terms of excelling in my talent. At the time where Hobbs turned on me, I think we were already there [crowd reacting favorably and momentum] and it was already a rolling boiling. Things had to have happened in that sense. Otherwise, to go another six or eight months and really just floating in limbo would not have been very beneficial to me, I don’t think.

I thought Punk, (William) Regal, these people that came in were great additions to the locker room. Great additions in terms of what they provided. I know, personally, I was able to talk to Punk a lot and get help on my promos and things like that. Same with Regal, because I’ve known him for so long. It was kind of a blow that both of these guys left. I am hopeful that down the line I do get that matchup. If not, I get it, that’s how the business is, but it would be nice. It would be nice to be able to work with somebody of that caliber because I’ve yet to work with, besides Sting, I’ve yet to work with somebody of such a high caliber, and the Sting match was a year or two ago.”

CM Punk is also willing to move on from his AEW contract. AEW also isn’t likely looking at buying out CM Punk’s contract. Only time will tell whether CM Punk will ever return to AEW, as his future with the company seems very uncertain at this point in time.

Do you agree with Ricky Starks? Sound off in the comments!