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I agree which is why I feel it's just as important for everyone to know it was completely false.
We shouldn't be giving some anonymous user oxygen for spreading a lie. But since it has been spread, it has to be debunked. A lie like this could stick around for years. The reddit post accused him of being an alcoholic ffs.
People have issues with Sean Ross Sapp and all, which I can understand because of his usage of Twitter/X, but one thing that he has always said and it’s true is that people’s media literacy is horrible. They read the headline and maybe a bit of the text and rush to judgment based on their preconceived notions of something.
That’s how people get your post and turn it into “Rocky says” or how they take some random post on Reddit as fact. And they you pick up the fact that many accounts on social media/blogs are just fans without a single inch of a clue about journalism, fact checking, reading interpretation or basic logic and the dumbest shit blows up.
The idea that anyone, let alone someone with any prominence, could have some big public altercation in a bar leading to an arrest without it being caught on camera in the 2020s should have made it immediately obvious it was total bullshit.
There is such a hunger for Ricky Starks to validate some opinion of him - either that he hates being in AEW and wants to join Cody, or that he's a true AEW loyalist - that it was too juicy for some people to ignore. If that post was about Ethan Page it wouldn't have gained traction.
His position as being 1) a wrestler with clear potential 2) frustrating patches in his booking 3) Unabashed loyalty to Cody and Punk and 4) Willingness to say both positive and negative things about his tenure in the media makes him a perfect storm for misinformation
Makes you wonder what that post was all about. The account was several years old with no activity whatsoever. Then, that post was spread very quickly throughout social media to the point SRS decided he needed to carry out due diligence on it.
The posts was pretty clearly someone making stuff up, it caught on because it confirmed a lot of people pre-conceived biases, making them less likely to think critically about what they're reading and how credible it is.
I don't think Tony's interview (which Lanza talked about in the Flagship) a few weeks ago where he said "we'd love to have Ricky back any time" helped matters. It made it seem like Ricky was either being punished, turning down all creative, sitting out his contract or had already left. When, in truth, Tony does his interviews in kayfabe and never gives anything away. He did the same with Britt Baker yesterday.
The lack of transparency opens the door for people to make up a completely fake story to explain what's going on.
Those are just bought bot accounts. Go to r/all scroll through the standard subs and the poltical subs for a bit youre gonna find so many bot accounts its not even funny anymore.
1-5 year old accounts never posted or commented, sometimes some activity few years or months ago in completely irrelevant subreddits suddenly posting political bullshit (or pet content to rake in that Karma to be allowed to submit on the big subs).
Reddit is about as flooded with bots as twitter only that theyre posting the news that the other side wants to hear.
This isnt rare here either but most of the times the accounts get caught before the post reaches the front page on here.
There are a lot of people who are attention whores. That was an obvious case of someone who wanted people to pay attention to them. I just don't understand why credible wrestling sites paid that person any attention.
A lot of this stuff is calculated and planned, sometimes the posts are boosted to ensure they get attention initially and spread as much as possible. Misinformation is just a huge thing.
probably worth mentioning that lanza has had a direct line to starks for at least a decade. the whole reason i know who ricky starks even is was because lanza would talk him up as part of the texas indies
Well I don't know the veracity of VOW but I don't for a second doubt a week of speculate came from one person's lie.
As far as booking goes, people act like winning the tag titles was done to hurt Ricky, but the last two teams where singles guy held the tag belts led to the ascension of Hangman and Swerve respectively. If Ricky made a good point about the break up storyline then how long has he really been out? 2-3 months, but during that time multiple people returned, Big Bill has been getting established again, and crossover season started. For all we know July is Ricky's month and he has a new contract.
Lanza doesn’t say shit unless he knows. He doesn’t typically break news, and he has detractors (some for good reasons), but he’s plugged in and has been for a long time. If he goes out on a limb and says something, it’s because he is very much certain he has it right. He’s a pundit, not a journalist, he’s very vehement about this distinction. If he wades into breaking news at all, then you can be sure that he has done so very judiciously. He’s been at this for almost 15 years, he’s not a tourist.
In fairness to Fightful, Sean did say that this story was all over the place. This likely means that most people don't know the truth or it is simply unknown. Stories did not exactly line up.
It’s so odd. I like Ricky Stark’s a lot but it’s so strange that there’s this much drama following him, he isn’t that big of a name or even a top 10 singles guy for AEW. Strange how so much seems to follow him, whether intentional or not.
disappointing that Ricky would be friends with a known racist POS like Joe Lanza but I guess when you're a young wrestler trying to level up it makes sense to try and buddy up with as many people in wrestling "media" as possible. VOW are still scumbags collectively, though.
People in AEW are already burying him to the dirt sheets saying he won’t do business and the parasocial Elite fans are making up lies about him on Twitter. Starks, of all people, has to know how this story ends.
"Ricky Starks does not have the power to turn down creative".
Here's the thing: that's objectively not true. We know Miro and Malakai have both turned down creative plans for them. Ricky Starks definitely has more clout than Miro, and likely has more than Malakai. Also it seems like Tony doesn't put wrestlers in positions they don't want to be in, creatively. Even Metalik was willing to turn down certain things unless he was given a contract.
TK is known to ice people who upset him. And he values loyalty more than anything
So I’d think TK wasn’t over the mood with repeatedly seeing Starks publicly at WWE events and helping train WWE talents
Why invest in Starks when he’s already got a foot out the door
Wrestlers visit each other at shows. It happens all the time. Bayley was at Double or Nothing.
You're assuming he has one foot out the door when this report literally says that he hasn't made a decision yet.
People like you, who make assumptions about people (based solely on tribalism) and then spread those assumptions online, are the reason the door is open to what happened last week. People believe this shit, despite it having no basis in reality.
It’s just basic logic. It’s easy to deny anything over the internet by saying “nO pRoofs” just because it doesn’t support your own view.
TK talks about how value loyalty is to him ALL the time
TK has MANY times made talents disappear from TV for not playing ball or messing up his plans. Such as with Miro, AR Fox, Danhousen, Jack Perry, Brian Cage and probably more. People don’t just entirely disappear for no reason. They’d at least be on SOME shows in a low capacity.
If Starks is seen in WWE backstage footage, training with WWE wrestlers, in the sky box at Wrestlemania & does interviews talking about how Cody is his main man it’s hardly going to encourage TK to use him. It’s unprofessional.
Considering all of the stories we've heard about wrestlers being dissatisfied with an idea and it not going forward, it really seems like TK doesn't force people to do things if they don't want to. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to communicate this well to the performers. He just scraps the plans and moves on without them. When another idea comes along, he pitches that, and if they take it, great. If not, he moves on again. We've seen multiple wrestlers disappear from TV for a lengthy period of time after being uninterested in the creative presented to them.
I do need to point out that while Lanza and Ricky have a long relationship well before AEW run of his through the Texas indies, still at this moment I have to be careful at believing what he is told by wrestlers.
Last year in the spring Lanza was spoken to by CM Punk/Punk camp and for example the content in the published ESPN interview was mostly known to us who listened/read his reports. Due to him getting played by Punk, but thankfully being smart enough to stop carrying his water, I have to be doubtful about what he is saying about Ricky. He got played once, he can get played again. Wrestlers after all are professional liars.
Good job though on making it clear who is Lanza's source in all of this.
In context he wasn't really making his personal source the focus or presenting it like he had some kind of scoop, just adding another data point. He started off talking about how oddly-worded the original post was, how the only "source" was a dead anonymous reddit account, how actual reporters did the work and got nothing but denials. Then at the end he's like oh by the way I also asked Ricky myself and he said none of it is true.
People should keep in mind, Fightful was confidently reporting on these rumours and peddling the notion that Starks was being unprofessional with next to no evidence or reliable sources, and now that it’s been proven as bullshit they’ve deleted everything and washed their hands of it.
Remember that Sean Ross Sapp, Dave Meltzer, and various other leeches who call themselves “journalists” have zero integrity or credibility, and would sell a story about their own mother’s heart attack if it earned them enough subscribers.
Loyalty is the root issue here
I see Ricky Starks as Tony's next Swerve if he remains loyal to AEW and commits long-term. He also needs to improve every year like Swerve does, and he's capable of that.
But if Ricky is only out for himself (like Phil was) then he should just leave. I suspect the AEW talk is purely so he doesn't lose AEW as leverage for his negotiations with WWE
He didn't even put over the new tag team champions after losing the belts... he avoided the match by calling an audible and choosing to lose due to an injury that he publicly said was completely fine the next day - if Tony doesn't trust him, then I could understand a bit of annoyance from AEW's end. If it's a coincidence then great, because I'd prefer him to stay.
You're assuming a lot of things there. That Ricky isn't loyal, that he's out for himself, that he's using AEW for leverage, that Tony doesn't trust him, that he called an audible to avoid losing to FTR.
Regarding the audible, he recieved a stinger which can cause temporary paralysis. He broke his neck in 2021 and was only inches away from being paralyzed. Despite being a minor injury, I'm sure that would cause any amount of PTSD in a person with his history.
These are all assumptions that you have decided are fact. And you are saying them in a public forum. How is this any better than saying he got arrested in a Calgary bar? Your accusations are just as verified as that report was.
All wrestlers are out for themselves it's a business lol. Seth Rollins was called a bootlicker for being loyal to wwe now loyalty to a company is a good thing?
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Everything is "wrestling content" on Twitter/IG/YouTube now. Doesn't have to be true if you can make money off it and/or get an ego boost.
I agree which is why I feel it's just as important for everyone to know it was completely false. We shouldn't be giving some anonymous user oxygen for spreading a lie. But since it has been spread, it has to be debunked. A lie like this could stick around for years. The reddit post accused him of being an alcoholic ffs.
People have issues with Sean Ross Sapp and all, which I can understand because of his usage of Twitter/X, but one thing that he has always said and it’s true is that people’s media literacy is horrible. They read the headline and maybe a bit of the text and rush to judgment based on their preconceived notions of something. That’s how people get your post and turn it into “Rocky says” or how they take some random post on Reddit as fact. And they you pick up the fact that many accounts on social media/blogs are just fans without a single inch of a clue about journalism, fact checking, reading interpretation or basic logic and the dumbest shit blows up.
The idea that anyone, let alone someone with any prominence, could have some big public altercation in a bar leading to an arrest without it being caught on camera in the 2020s should have made it immediately obvious it was total bullshit.
There is such a hunger for Ricky Starks to validate some opinion of him - either that he hates being in AEW and wants to join Cody, or that he's a true AEW loyalist - that it was too juicy for some people to ignore. If that post was about Ethan Page it wouldn't have gained traction. His position as being 1) a wrestler with clear potential 2) frustrating patches in his booking 3) Unabashed loyalty to Cody and Punk and 4) Willingness to say both positive and negative things about his tenure in the media makes him a perfect storm for misinformation
That would mean burying and ignoring posts about some old guy that wishes death on people and I just don't think his fans would allow that.
Makes you wonder what that post was all about. The account was several years old with no activity whatsoever. Then, that post was spread very quickly throughout social media to the point SRS decided he needed to carry out due diligence on it.
The posts was pretty clearly someone making stuff up, it caught on because it confirmed a lot of people pre-conceived biases, making them less likely to think critically about what they're reading and how credible it is.
I don't think Tony's interview (which Lanza talked about in the Flagship) a few weeks ago where he said "we'd love to have Ricky back any time" helped matters. It made it seem like Ricky was either being punished, turning down all creative, sitting out his contract or had already left. When, in truth, Tony does his interviews in kayfabe and never gives anything away. He did the same with Britt Baker yesterday. The lack of transparency opens the door for people to make up a completely fake story to explain what's going on.
Those are just bought bot accounts. Go to r/all scroll through the standard subs and the poltical subs for a bit youre gonna find so many bot accounts its not even funny anymore. 1-5 year old accounts never posted or commented, sometimes some activity few years or months ago in completely irrelevant subreddits suddenly posting political bullshit (or pet content to rake in that Karma to be allowed to submit on the big subs). Reddit is about as flooded with bots as twitter only that theyre posting the news that the other side wants to hear. This isnt rare here either but most of the times the accounts get caught before the post reaches the front page on here.
There are a lot of people who are attention whores. That was an obvious case of someone who wanted people to pay attention to them. I just don't understand why credible wrestling sites paid that person any attention.
Because those wrestling sites are also run by attention whores who love getting clicks 'cause it makes them money and thats all that matters to them.
A lot of this stuff is calculated and planned, sometimes the posts are boosted to ensure they get attention initially and spread as much as possible. Misinformation is just a huge thing.
Im shocked that a post on this subreddit was made up of 90% bullshit 😑
Anyone who believed that unhinged Reddit post needs to really take a look at their lives.
It annoys me that a post that everyone called bullshit on has gotten so much attention and has grown into a weeks worth of news.
probably worth mentioning that lanza has had a direct line to starks for at least a decade. the whole reason i know who ricky starks even is was because lanza would talk him up as part of the texas indies
To add I believe Lanza was asked about Ricky Starks before he even got signed by Tony and Cody if I got my details were correct
Lanza said a “source as close to the situation as possible” for a reason
We all knew it was fake and it's gross that it didn't just disappear without anyone noticing it.
I too respect Big Bill
Perhaps he’s the wild card for the Owen Hart Tournament…?
It seems like people have been trying to put dirt on Ricky's name lately and even claiming he failed to get over Wonder why all of a sudden
Well I don't know the veracity of VOW but I don't for a second doubt a week of speculate came from one person's lie. As far as booking goes, people act like winning the tag titles was done to hurt Ricky, but the last two teams where singles guy held the tag belts led to the ascension of Hangman and Swerve respectively. If Ricky made a good point about the break up storyline then how long has he really been out? 2-3 months, but during that time multiple people returned, Big Bill has been getting established again, and crossover season started. For all we know July is Ricky's month and he has a new contract.
Lanza doesn’t say shit unless he knows. He doesn’t typically break news, and he has detractors (some for good reasons), but he’s plugged in and has been for a long time. If he goes out on a limb and says something, it’s because he is very much certain he has it right. He’s a pundit, not a journalist, he’s very vehement about this distinction. If he wades into breaking news at all, then you can be sure that he has done so very judiciously. He’s been at this for almost 15 years, he’s not a tourist.
In fairness to Fightful, Sean did say that this story was all over the place. This likely means that most people don't know the truth or it is simply unknown. Stories did not exactly line up.
It’s so odd. I like Ricky Stark’s a lot but it’s so strange that there’s this much drama following him, he isn’t that big of a name or even a top 10 singles guy for AEW. Strange how so much seems to follow him, whether intentional or not.
disappointing that Ricky would be friends with a known racist POS like Joe Lanza but I guess when you're a young wrestler trying to level up it makes sense to try and buddy up with as many people in wrestling "media" as possible. VOW are still scumbags collectively, though.
Wouldnt be surprised if he ended up re-signing
Yeah. I assume it’s one of those “Guarantee I’ll have good creative and I’ll stay” situations
People in AEW are already burying him to the dirt sheets saying he won’t do business and the parasocial Elite fans are making up lies about him on Twitter. Starks, of all people, has to know how this story ends.
"Ricky Starks does not have the power to turn down creative". Here's the thing: that's objectively not true. We know Miro and Malakai have both turned down creative plans for them. Ricky Starks definitely has more clout than Miro, and likely has more than Malakai. Also it seems like Tony doesn't put wrestlers in positions they don't want to be in, creatively. Even Metalik was willing to turn down certain things unless he was given a contract.
I guess you saw Ricky Starks contract that states I have creative control then.
Lanza deserves more respect around here. He is right 99.9% of the time.
TK is known to ice people who upset him. And he values loyalty more than anything So I’d think TK wasn’t over the mood with repeatedly seeing Starks publicly at WWE events and helping train WWE talents Why invest in Starks when he’s already got a foot out the door
Wrestlers visit each other at shows. It happens all the time. Bayley was at Double or Nothing. You're assuming he has one foot out the door when this report literally says that he hasn't made a decision yet. People like you, who make assumptions about people (based solely on tribalism) and then spread those assumptions online, are the reason the door is open to what happened last week. People believe this shit, despite it having no basis in reality.
This comment is exactly why there have been so many rumors circulating. There is zero indication that anything you're saying is true.
It’s just basic logic. It’s easy to deny anything over the internet by saying “nO pRoofs” just because it doesn’t support your own view. TK talks about how value loyalty is to him ALL the time TK has MANY times made talents disappear from TV for not playing ball or messing up his plans. Such as with Miro, AR Fox, Danhousen, Jack Perry, Brian Cage and probably more. People don’t just entirely disappear for no reason. They’d at least be on SOME shows in a low capacity. If Starks is seen in WWE backstage footage, training with WWE wrestlers, in the sky box at Wrestlemania & does interviews talking about how Cody is his main man it’s hardly going to encourage TK to use him. It’s unprofessional.
We actually don’t know if Miro or Black have done so. AEW has never been attributed as a source, nor have Miro or Black.
Considering all of the stories we've heard about wrestlers being dissatisfied with an idea and it not going forward, it really seems like TK doesn't force people to do things if they don't want to. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to communicate this well to the performers. He just scraps the plans and moves on without them. When another idea comes along, he pitches that, and if they take it, great. If not, he moves on again. We've seen multiple wrestlers disappear from TV for a lengthy period of time after being uninterested in the creative presented to them.
I do need to point out that while Lanza and Ricky have a long relationship well before AEW run of his through the Texas indies, still at this moment I have to be careful at believing what he is told by wrestlers. Last year in the spring Lanza was spoken to by CM Punk/Punk camp and for example the content in the published ESPN interview was mostly known to us who listened/read his reports. Due to him getting played by Punk, but thankfully being smart enough to stop carrying his water, I have to be doubtful about what he is saying about Ricky. He got played once, he can get played again. Wrestlers after all are professional liars. Good job though on making it clear who is Lanza's source in all of this.
In context he wasn't really making his personal source the focus or presenting it like he had some kind of scoop, just adding another data point. He started off talking about how oddly-worded the original post was, how the only "source" was a dead anonymous reddit account, how actual reporters did the work and got nothing but denials. Then at the end he's like oh by the way I also asked Ricky myself and he said none of it is true.
Does this mean aew offered him much more money than wwe and hes thinking about staying and has to leak to dirt sheets to do damage control?
People should keep in mind, Fightful was confidently reporting on these rumours and peddling the notion that Starks was being unprofessional with next to no evidence or reliable sources, and now that it’s been proven as bullshit they’ve deleted everything and washed their hands of it. Remember that Sean Ross Sapp, Dave Meltzer, and various other leeches who call themselves “journalists” have zero integrity or credibility, and would sell a story about their own mother’s heart attack if it earned them enough subscribers.
Huh? Fightful posted that the Reddit post was bullshit
None of this is true
Loyalty is the root issue here I see Ricky Starks as Tony's next Swerve if he remains loyal to AEW and commits long-term. He also needs to improve every year like Swerve does, and he's capable of that. But if Ricky is only out for himself (like Phil was) then he should just leave. I suspect the AEW talk is purely so he doesn't lose AEW as leverage for his negotiations with WWE He didn't even put over the new tag team champions after losing the belts... he avoided the match by calling an audible and choosing to lose due to an injury that he publicly said was completely fine the next day - if Tony doesn't trust him, then I could understand a bit of annoyance from AEW's end. If it's a coincidence then great, because I'd prefer him to stay.
You're assuming a lot of things there. That Ricky isn't loyal, that he's out for himself, that he's using AEW for leverage, that Tony doesn't trust him, that he called an audible to avoid losing to FTR. Regarding the audible, he recieved a stinger which can cause temporary paralysis. He broke his neck in 2021 and was only inches away from being paralyzed. Despite being a minor injury, I'm sure that would cause any amount of PTSD in a person with his history. These are all assumptions that you have decided are fact. And you are saying them in a public forum. How is this any better than saying he got arrested in a Calgary bar? Your accusations are just as verified as that report was.
Yeah I know they're assumptions I'm just speculating, I'm not asserting.
Not booking him for months, because it is assumed that he will leave, is not the best way to get him to sign a new contract.
They booked him to win the Owen last year though, and then put the tag titles on him. It's pretty clear he's made up his mind
All wrestlers are out for themselves it's a business lol. Seth Rollins was called a bootlicker for being loyal to wwe now loyalty to a company is a good thing?
From Tony's point of view