Ricky Starks hopes to become the next pro wrestling superstar | CBC Radio

When he was seven years old, Ricky Starks saw larger-than-life pro wrestlers like The Undertaker, Mankind and The Rock on television. Like many kids in the late ’90s, he said he was going to become one of them.

“I was a big book nerd about wrestling. I would … read the autobiographies. I would watch all these, you know, different videos I tape-traded a bit. I constantly submerged myself,” the wrestler told CBC Radio.

Unlike most dreamers, he’s well on his way to following through, after establishing himself as a rising star in the upstart All Elite Wrestling company. 

Starks, 32, is set to challenge All Elite Wrestling (AEW) World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman tonight from Garland, Texas, on their flagship Dynamite program. It’s his first one-on-one shot for the company’s top title.

“I think this is a big chance for me to carry the ball … if I become champion, which I think I will,” said the wrestler with the nickname “Absolute,” who never fully broke character during his interview.

“I think it’s a big chance for me to show people exactly what they’ve been missing.”

The New Orleans native started his wrestling career in 2011, earning attention on the independent wrestling scenes in and around Austin, Texas, and later on the streaming-only National Wrestling Alliance.

If you paid very close attention, you might have noticed his sporadic appearances in the 2010s on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), though mostly as an on-screen extra or “enhancement talent” — appearing in short matches or backstage segments to be pinned, beaten down or otherwise humiliated by more established stars.

He then burst onto the mainstream scene in the summer of 2020, when he appeared as a surprise opponent for Cody Rhodes. At the time the wrestling company was operating exclusively in a near-empty Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Fla., thanks to early pandemic restrictions.

Since its start in 2019, AEW featured a new crop of wrestling talent anchored by stars who made a name for themselves in WWE and other major companies, including Canadians Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega.

But Starks has quickly made a name for himself as one of its fastest rising stars who haven’t yet enjoyed mainstream attention on TV in North America.

With his fiery attitude, propensity to pose for the crowd and wear flamboyant silken shirts, more than one wrestling commentator has compared him to a contemporary version of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Starks has mixed feelings about it.

“It’s very, very flattering. And it’s a great comparison. What I don’t like, though, is when people discredit my creativity or my personal work by saying that I’m just a rip-off of such-and-such,” he said.

He did note, however, that he hopes to eventually follow Johnson’s transition from wrestling to acting.

Starks unscripted

Last week’s episode of AEW Dynamite displayed the tension between playing to the oldies and striking out a new path.

Starks won a multi-man battle royale by last throwing out Hamilton, Ont., native Ethan Page — with the same manoeuvre Johnson used in the 2000 Royal Rumble.

But he then faced off in a war of words with current champ Friedman. Fans online and commentators following the show called it a breakthrough moment for Starks’ character, who had precious little on-screen talking time before this month.

Starks said he had a script going into the segment, but threw it out in the heat of the moment and instead improvised with the microphone in hand.

“By the time the match was over, I was like, whoa, I couldn’t remember. My mind was going so quick that I couldn’t remember anything, if that makes sense. So I just freestyled it 1,000 per cent from start to finish,” he said.

Starks may be considered a long shot to win the championship in this week’s bout. After all, Friedman just won the title last month, and in the scripted world of pro wrestling, his story at the top of the mountain is arguably just beginning.

Win or lose, however, Starks is poised to make the best of the spotlight with a performance that gets people talking — hopefully for years to come.

AEW Dynamite airs tonight on TBS, as well as TSN’s streaming service in Canada.