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Highlights of Ricky Starks on PWI podcast

Posted: May 4th 2022 By: Pro Wrestling Illustrated

AEW star and current FTW champion Ricky Starks recently appeared on the PWI podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, which included the Absolute One discussing his relationship with ECW legend Taz, and how he feels about fans comparing him to The Rock. Highlights from the interview can be found below.

On the relationship he has with ECW legend Taz:
“Taz is really great when it comes to the business side, obviously, he’s great when it comes to some of the stuff in the ring. So I try to pick his brain when I can. The relationship that me and him have is that I don’t necessarily always have to go to him and ask him for advice. There’s times where he’ll come to me and say to keep this in mind or do this or do that. I definitely think he’s helped me out when it comes to my matches and things of that nature. Then when it came to the promos, we collaborated quite a bit. I don’t think people realize that. So I like that about Taz. He sees the positive and he tries to accentuate the positives with me. There are bad things that I do that he nipped in the bud and I’d never do it again. So the relationship is really good, I think.”

How people continue to compare him to The Rock:
“Well, the only thing that bothers me is when people try to say that I’m actually actively copying The Rock with the way I dress and all this other dumb sh*t. It does piss me off because I’ve never gone into wrestling trying to copy The Rock. I’ve never studied The Rock’s promos to do exactly how he does. Everything I do, it comes from my head. It comes from how I feel and how I want to look. So when I hear people say that and discredit my originality, it does bother me a bit. I think the issue is that some people, even outside of wrestling fans, they’re so closed minded that they can’t understand there’s individuality in certain people, and because of the way that I dress, they compare it to how The Rock used to dress. The Rock isn’t the only guy that knows how to dress. You all are just so used to people in basketball shorts and their own merchandise shirts, that you can’t fathom somebody coming on screen and dressing in a turtleneck and nice slacks. It’s the most bizarre thing.”

Says he doesn’t mind the comparison:
“I don’t mind the comparison. It’s just when people say verbatim ‘Yeah, he’s just stealing The Rock.’ If you want to see who is stealing The Rock, maybe we should look at some other promotions and go from there. Because I have never sat up here and tried to basically bite off The Rock’s style of anything. I am who I am. So that’s the only thing I really get irked about is when people try to discredit me in my own way, but in terms of comparisons looks wise, I actually don’t mind. Me and The Rock are both handsome individuals, and you can’t say that a lot for some of the fans that try to talk trash about us.”