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Ricky Starks on AEW Dynamite promo: 'What you saw out there was me winging it'

Posted: Dec 10th 2022 By: Ian Carey

Ricky Starks memorized exactly what he wanted to say in his promo on AEW Dynamite but when the moment came, he decided to "just wing" it instead. 

After winning the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royal on Wednesday, Starks cut a promo on AEW World Champion, MJF, who he will face next week at Winter is Coming. He would later speak to Comicbook.com about his decision to abandon his original plans for the segment. 

"I think you'll hear a lot of wrestlers say, 'Oh, I didn't think of it. I didn't plan it out, I didn't write it out.' And Cody [Rhodes] makes the same joke, but that's bull," Starks said. "Even the best promos had to have some type of structure to them. And I am somewhat in the same way, admittedly. I'm not one to really pull back the curtain on anything here, but yesterday, earlier in the day, I had wrote out this whole thing, and in my head memorized it and did all this, and stressed myself out, and then had a match to do. Anything could have gone wrong where I just forget it in the match."

"I remember Max cutting that promo and saying these comments, and in that moment I was like, 'I'll just wing it. I'll just wing it. I know where I want to go and what I want to get to, and I'll just fill in the blanks.,'" Starks continued. "So what you saw out there was me winging it. That's how I operate. Yes, I can come up with some lines and think about it, but for the most part, whatever I feel, I just say, and it comes off in that moment."

Starks would continue to talk about the positive reception he's received regarding the segment and other times that he's spoken "from the heart" during promos. 

"I'm not a stranger to this type of reception to a promo I've done," Starks added. "Earlier in the year, after I lost the title to Hook, I had a similar promo. The common theme between all that is it's just me really speaking from the heart in every single instance."