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Ricky Starks: CM Punk Was Instrumental In My Presentation On Collision, He’s Never Done Me Wrong

Originally posted on Wrestlezone
By Jayakrishna Dasappan | Last updated 5/17/24

One of the most controversial stars in all of professional wrestling is CM Punk. His time in AEW although started in a very colorful fashion, things were not as fruitful towards his final days with the company. But the Absolute One, Ricky Starks revealed that the Best in the World played a key role in helping multiple stars to succeed in AEW Collision.

During an interview with WhatCulture Wrestling, Ricky Starks shared the influence that CM Punk had when he was part of AEW and Friday night Collision.

“[CM] Punk was very instrumental in my presentation on Collision. There’s a video clip that constantly gets reshared. Where the Pyro is going off, and exploding, and blah blah blah. That was all Punk’s idea. Punk had a vision for trying to help out certain people. And getting along. I do remember a conversation with him where he was like, ‘You know, it’s really up to you to swim. Sink or swim.’ And I felt like, I put a lot of stress on myself. And pressure on myself. To constantly outperform my last match that I had.

“Just to prove that if he was going to put his name on so to speak or be the one to push for me, then I needed to do my part and make sure I never let that down. And it was the same thing when I had the tag match with the Bucks. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t let the Bucks down. Or with Sting. It’s those things. Punk was very instrumental in making sure, hey, we should try to do something different with this dude.”

CM Punk has never done Ricky Starks wrong

Starks shared that he is always thankful for Punk, and he has never done him wrong.

“And I think Punk is the only one that was closest to really understanding me in that regard. When it came to… If you remember how I pulled up in the car… But I had that. And then I was the one that came out with the Louis bag, and I dressed. Every time he would see my outfit he would laugh and be like, ‘This is perfect.’ So there was a great collaboration going on in that regard. So that’s why I have no issues with Punk. I don’t give a f*** what anybody tries to tell me. I don’t care. He has never done me wrong.”

“And you can have your opinions on him and all that. But don’t… You shouldn’t vilify someone for thinking differently than you. You get what I’m saying? And I will say that till I’m blue in the face. He really went out of his way to really try and make something on that Collision show for me. And I feel like we were… It was working and I feel like we were really on to something. And I think that’s why that Strap Match with Bryan really means a lot. Because it just felt like the things that I had learned was like coming to a head of like, ‘Here we go.’ Yeah, he was a great dude. And I still think Punk is a good dude in my opinion. He’s helped… He tried to help a lot of us on that show. And I can always be thankful for that,” Ricky Starks said.