Ricky Starks praises CM Punk and says “you shouldn’t vilify someone for thinking differently than you”

During an interview with WhatCulture.com, Ricky Starks talked about working with CM Punk during the early episodes of AEW Collision. Starks called Punk “a great dude” and said the following…

“Punk was very instrumental in my presentation on Collision. There’s a video clip that constantly gets re shared where the pyro is going off and exploding. That was all Punk’s idea. Punk had a vision for trying to help a certain people and getting along. I do remember a conversation where he’s like ‘you know, it’s really up to you to sink or swim’ and I felt like I put a lot of stress 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 me so to speak or be the one to push for me that I needed to do my part and make sure I never let that down. It’s those things Punk was very instrumental in making sure like ‘hey, we should try to do something different with this dude’ and I think Punk is the only one that was closest to really understanding me in that regard.”

“I have no issues with Punk, I don’t give a f*ck what anybody tries to tell me, I don’t care. He has never done me wrong and you can have your opinions on him, but you shouldn’t vilify someone for thinking differently than you.” (quotes courtesy of @Teffo_01)