Ranking Every AEW Surprise Debut From Worst To Best

7. Ricky Starks

Jon Moxley
AEW

At the time, it may not have been a major deal for a good portion of fans watching the 17 June 2020 edition of AEW Dynamite, but for those in the know, the surprise appearance of Ricky Starks in All Elite Wrestling was all kinds of grin-inducing.

When Billy Corgan's relaunching of the National Wrestling Alliance served up the weekly Powerrr YouTube show, those that checked out this one-hour studio-set offering were instantly won over by the unique charisma of the relatively unknown Starks.

Having departed the NWA once the promotion was forced to go on a pandemic-created hiatus, Absolute was viewed by some as being the hottest free agent in the game. Despite the question of just where this former NWA World Television Champion would land, it still came as a huge surprise to see the Stroke Daddy answer Cody Rhodes' TNT Title open challenge.

Showcased pre-match in a vignette where Starks came off as a ridiculously endearing babyface, Ricky couldn't quite get the job done against Cody on that June night. But while his kayfabe in-ring work came up short, Ricky Starks' performance here was so impressive that Tony Khan reportedly offered him an AEW contract as soon as he got backstage.

Since then, Starks has cemented himself as a pivotal part of AEW programming as a member of the nefarious Team Taz faction.

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.