Ricky Saints Grades His Runs In AEW & NXT

Ricky Saints compares his time with AEW and WWE NXT.

Back in February 2025, Ricky Starks was released by All Elite Wrestling, bringing an end to his five-year tenure with the promotion that saw him capture the FTW Championship and AEW World Tag Team Championship. He would almost immediately make his WWE debut on NXT under the name Ricky Saints, where he remains active as one of the brand’s top stars today.

Speaking with David Shoemaker and Kazeem Famuyide of The Ringer, Saints was asked to grade his respective runs with both promotions, ultimately giving his time in NXT the edge over his tenure in AEW.

“I think when you look at it in a totality form, I did enjoy [AEW]. I just wanted more out of it… I think I would give it like a B. Maybe a B. ‘Cause I have to remove certain personal things of accomplishments that I wanted that I didn’t necessarily get. I gotta remove that. I gotta look at what the actual work was. What was actually done. And now when we compare that to NXT, I would give my NXT run, just because I’m a perfectionist, I’d give it a B+. We’re edging out an A. I’m still doing it.”

-Ricky Saints

After just over a year in WWE NXT, Ricky Saints has already enjoyed significant success on the brand, capturing both the NXT North American Championship and the NXT Championship during his run.

With WrestleMania 42 now behind us, several WWE NXT stars are reportedly being considered for potential main roster call-ups, with Ricky Saints among the names discussed. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Ricky Saints as soon as we hear more.

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