Former AEW World Tag Team Champion Ricky Starks defeated KENTA at the DEFY Hundredth event from Washington Hall in Seattle, Washington on Friday night.
Starks ended KENTA’S 615-day reign as the promotion’s World Champion.
Starks, who is also a former FTW Champion and Men’s Owen Hart Cup winner in AEW, has not been a part of the promotion’s storylines since the March 30 episode of Collision, when he and Big Bill lost a tag team tournament match to Top Flight. An audible was called, with the match being awarded to Top Flight after it had initially appeared Starks may have landed on his neck awkwardly. Starks did not kick out of a pinfall attempt that was not supposed to be a three-count. He later said that he was checked out and ended up fine as AEW took the proper precautions.
Unconfirmed rumors surfaced on social media last summer that Starks got himself into legal trouble in Canada and that he turned down creative ideas given to him. Starks responded to those rumors, saying enough is enough and he never turned down anything, ever and to just stop.
There is still ongoing speculation surrounding Starks as his future AEW is unclear.
