5 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Rampage (Nov 4)

Ups...

5. Ricky Starks Lays Out His Plans

Ricky Starks has officially entered himself into the AEW World Title Eliminator tourney that'll culminate at Full Gear. His opponent in the quarterfinals will be Lance Archer (which wasn't mentioned here), and he joins others like Eddie Kingston, Ethan Page and Dante Martin in the brackets too.

None of them made as strong a case for winning the thing as 'Absolute'.

Starks delivered a sweet in-ring promo on Rampage. It's great to see him back generally, especially now he's leaning more towards the babyface side and gets to stand in his own spotlight away from the Team Taz glut. Ricky clearly knew he had to smash it here, and he did.

Tony Khan must've been impressed by the way Starks held the live crowd in the palm of his hand and managed to marry several of The Rock's mannerisms with MJF-style arrogance. This was proof that Ricky deserves a major push next year.