AEW's Ricky Starks Reportedly Out Of Action With A Fractured Neck

The Stroke Daddy is set for a spell on the sidelines after taking a nasty bump last month.

by Andrew Pollard
Ricky Starks AEW Dynamite
AEW

AEW’s Ricky Starks is set for a spell on the sidelines due to a fractured neck.

As first reported by Voices of Wrestling, then followed up by the Wrestling Observer, Absolute picked up the injury during his 21 April Dynamite match against Hangman Page. On that Dynamite, Starks had an extremely rough landing after Page had attempted to hit a German Suplex. The Stroke Daddy would finish the match and was quick to take to social media to quell any concerns over a possible injury.

Since then, the former NWA TV Champion was part of an AEW Dark tag match where he and Team Taz cohort Powerhouse Hobbs decimated Aaron Frye and Brick Aldridge. The caveat here, of course, is that that bout only lasted 32 seconds and Starks never tagged in at any point.

From the initial Voices of Wrestling report, Starks is expected to miss around three months of in-ring action, although the positive here is that the charismatic star should not require surgery. There’s also the belief that Ricky will still appear on AEW television during this time – with his promo ability and sheer presence meaning he can still bring so much to AEW even if he’s unable to wrestle for the next few months.

Advertisement

For Starks, he took to Twitter earlier today with what appears to be an X-ray photo.

Here's to a swift and full recovery for Ricky Starks from all of us here at WhatCulture Wrestling.

In this post: 
Ricky Starks
 
Posted On: 
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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.