Ricky Starks Names His AEW Debut Bout Against Cody Rhodes As His Favorite Match So Far

Ricky Starks’ first AEW match with Cody Rhodes will always hold a special place in his heart.

Ricky Starks kicked off 2023 with a significant victory over Chris Jericho. Since joining All Elite Wrestling, Starks has had the good fortune of working with legends such as Sting and Taz while also wrestling top stars of today like The Young Bucks, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Darby Allin, HOOK, and more.

Speaking on the Rewind with Besa podcast, recorded before his match with Jericho, Starks named his first match in AEW, wrestling Cody Rhodes for the AEW TNT Championship, as his favorite match of his career. Also, Starks gave a shout-out to a match he had against Darby Allin. 

“My first favorite match would be against Cody Rhodes. That was the match where I made my debut on Dynamite. That was the match that helped me get a contract with AEW. Also, too, that’s one of my good friends. So that sticks out in my head [as] one of my favorite matches,” said Starks. “The other being [against] another Seattle hometown hero, Darby Allin. I had a match against him as well. So that’d be a second.”

Starks has been in the ring opposite Darby on numerous occasions in tag team scenarios, but the only time they had a singles match was on the September 25, 2020, episode of Dynamite. On that night, Darby defeated Ricky in about 10 minutes.

As for Ricky’s relationship with Cody Rhodes, Starks recently stated that he still looks to Cody for advice. Also, after failing to win the TNT Championship in his debut, Starks wants to capture that particular championship. Becoming TNT Champion was even on his list of 2023 goals.

Darby recaptured the TNT Championship by defeating Samoa Joe on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, the same night Ricky Starks defeated Chris Jericho. 

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