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Ricky Starks says goodbye to WWE NXT in post-show promo

Posted: Apr 30th 2026 By: Shounak Chakribarti

WWE main-roster bound Ricky Starks, aka Ricky Saints, has bid adieu to NXT following a long, successful run.

After spending years in AEW, Saints made his long-awaited WWE debut on the February 11, 2025 episode of WWE NXT. Shortly after, Saints won multiple titles at the promotion, and after a year-long run, he is now moving to the main roster.

Heading to Friday Night SmackDown, Saints competed in his last NXT match on April 28, where he suffered a defeat against Shiloh Hill. After the match, in a post-show promo, Saints delivered his farewell message.

“I should be thanking you. I should be thanking the people in the production truck. All of them. February 7, I stood up there, and I talked my stuff, and you guys welcomed me, and you chanted ‘Ricky Starks’, and you made sure I remembered who I was. On the 11th, I had my match, and then a few months after that, I won the North American Championship. I want you to understand something, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I came here, but you welcomed me,” he said.

“I’d be lying if I said this was all a very easy transition, but it was not, and that is okay, that’s how it gets sometimes, but at the end of the day, I came out here, I busted my a**, I made sure that I did what was needed for business,” Saints added.

“You guys repaid me with love, with stroke, with buying the shirts, with all of that. I don’t think that I would even get this far had it not been for the people here, and definitely for the people in the back.”

In the final moments of his goodbye speech, Starks broke character and addressed the crowd in an emotional manner. “So, if this is the last time that you may see me in this NXT ring, then thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I would hope that this Friday on SmackDown, I would hope that you’d watch me there too.”

Saints, 36, is a former NXT Champion and NXT North American Champion.