Ricky Saints addresses backlash over his support for Cody Rhodes while still working for AEW
Prior to leaving AEW, Ricky Saints (formerly Ricky Starks) was in attendance for WWE events such as the 2023 Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 40 to show support for his friend Cody Rhodes. A security camera photo of Saints at the Rumble went viral.
While appearing on Cody’s What Do You Want to Talk About? podcast, Ricky addressed backlash that he received…
“I will never let somebody weaponize a friendship against me. And that comes back to the loyalty that I have. This is the thing like, I don’t have a lot of friends, so to speak. The people that have shown me being seen, being heard, being understood. A random text message means the world to me. I have such an endearing and deep love for you as a person because of what you have shown and reciprocated back.
So when I did that, I didn’t give a f*ck. I’ll be real with you. And I don’t really believe in something being a detriment to my career. If you take that whole situation out of its element and you show someone, hey, this guy got in trouble for being at his friend’s biggest moment of his career. What do you think of that? That’s a beautiful thing. Why should I ever get in trouble?
Even to this day, I will ride for somebody because that’s just in my nature. And I will never, ever, ever let a situation like that ever be something that hinders me. I already knew being so public about an affection for a friend, especially in your position, was always going to be ‘That’s just Cody’s friend.’ That’s cool, if that’s what you think of me, perfect. But when I get in the ring, when I get on the microphone, no one will ever say that sh*t to me. I don’t regret anything. I don’t regret the Rumble thing.”