Ricky Saints reflects on ‘sleeper match’ from AEW run
When Ricky Saints thinks back on important moments he’s had in wrestling, there’s a “sleeper match” that stands out from his AEW run.
The former Ricky Starks appeared on The Battleground Podcast ahead of NXT Vengeance Day. During the interview, he was asked to name the one moment from his career where fans went from liking him to thinking he’s a star. Saints pointed to his strap match against Bryan Danielson from AEW All Out 2023 as an obvious choice. But he also fondly remembers an eight-man tag match from the second-ever episode of Collision where he teamed with CM Punk & FTR against Jay White, Juice Robinson & The Gunns.
“That’s hard, because I felt it twice. Obviously the Bryan Danielson match that I had, the strap match, was really great,” Saints said. “But there’s also a sleeper match that I don’t think people really remember. It was a big tag match. It was me, Punk, FTR against The Gunn Club. It was in Toronto. It was amazing, that was such a great feeling that I had where I go, ‘Wow, I get it. I get it now.’ So I think those two are like standout in my mind of that type of scenario. And it still happens, it’s still happening for some people.”
As someone who was once in AEW and is now signed to WWE, Saints inevitably encounters some tribalism online. But he told The Battleground Podcast that, to an extent, he appreciates the passion people have for the promotions and wrestlers they love. And the dynamic that exists on social media isn’t one that he’s actually encountered in real life.
“I think it’s a little bit more sensitive and touchy just for the fact that we’re all on social media, so it’s a little more saturated. But then when you actually go out into the crowds and you go to these live events — like in Nashville, no one cared,” Saints said. “There were people who were fans of me from AEW, people who were fans of me from NWA, people who are fans of me now. They all mesh, they all share a commonality. I do think that it is kind of cool, to a certain degree, that people have such an ownership and stake in a specific company or a specific wrestler. I like the fondness of that, because if you ain’t got passion for your team, then what are you doing?”
Saints told The Battleground Podcast that he believes right now is a great time to be a wrestling fan. When he was coming up in the NWA, there were so many fewer options than there are now.
“Think about 2018, right? Think about 2019,” he said. “When I was in NWA, it was just NWA and WWE. That was it. And then you had, of course, New Japan and stuff like that. But it’s a great time to be a fan of professional wrestling.”
Saints is challenging Joe Hendry for the NXT Championship at this Saturday’s Vengeance Day PLE. If Saints wins, it will be his second time holding the NXT Championship since debuting for the brand in February 2025.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.