10 Wrestlers Who Grabbed The Brass Ring In 2020

2. Ricky Starks

Eddie Kingston
AEW

Looking back across the past 12 months, Ricky Starks has shown time and time and time and time again how he deserves to have the biggest of spotlights shone on him.

To many wrestling fans, Starks was somewhat of a relative unknown until turning up on the second episode of NWA Powerrr towards the end of 2019. While the Stroke Daddy made an instant impression as his star power poured from the screen, the all-kinds-of-fun and ever-growing NWA programming wasn't watched by the same amount of people who were watching certain other wrestling promotions.

Starks made the most of every second of screen time during his time with the NWA - where he became the first person to hold the relaunched NWA World Television Championship - and that trend continued for the New Orleans-born grappler upon him answering Cody's TNT Championship open challenge this past June.

Before landing in AEW, Ricky Starks was very much one of those talents where if you know, you know. As in, those lucky enough to have seen Starks knew he was destined for greatness. He may not be quite at the top of the tree just yet, but greatness is a destination that the Stroke Daddy is honing in on with impressive ferocity and velocity.

Whether it's in the ring, on the microphone, or even at the announce desk, Ricky Starks is gold - and his track record suggests that Absolute will continue to knock every opportunity out of the park.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.