AEW should let Ricky Starks out of his contract

Ricky Starks has been one major talking point in the last few days. The former AEW Tag Team Champion was backstage at AEW Full Gear, as reported by Fightful Select, but that wasn’t the only report about the performer. On November 26, Fightful reported that AEW exercised a contract option to extend Starks’s deal into the spring or summer of 2025. This was a move that brought some interesting blowback across the social media space.

For those unaware, an option in a contract is a situation that happens often in professional sports. It’s a stipulation in which the team or promotion can extend the time on a player’s contract for a set amount of time. In this instance, Starks’s contract was reported to be up in Spring of 2024, but this extension will push that into 2025.

The reason this is controversial in the eyes of many of is because Starks has not been used on AEW television since March, and there are several reports that he was looking to test out the free agency market. This move keeps him in AEW, where the company can continue to not use him on television, weakening his position when the time does come for him to either renegotiate or seek new deals.

This isn’t directly the same as what WWE has been criticized for in the past. Think back to how the company kept individuals like Mustafa Ali and PAC under contract after they asked to be released. Both men were kept off television while the term of their contract ran out, instead of letting them out of their deal at their request, flexing the power of the promotion over the independent contractor in those situations. Still, fans are holding Tony Khan to the same guidelines, questioning his decision to not only keep Starks under contract but extend it even further if he’s not to be used on television.

The report issued by Fightful closed out by mentioning that “we’ve not learned of any plans involving AEW and Ricky Starks.” If there are no plans to use the talented and popular performer on television, why keep him under contract? Is this to send a message to other performers who are looking to leave sooner than their contract ends? Or is he simply attempting to weaken Stark’s bargaining position heading into what may be a free agency battle?

AEW could instead part ways with him now, allowing him to go on his way. This would be a show of good faith to the wrestling community that the promotion is truly looking to work well with the in-ring talent. Starks could also be leveraged to put over other names that AEW intends to leverage for the future. If they see him as a star to keep away from WWE as long as possible, perhaps using him on television while they have him is an even better move to make.

This is a stark reminder that no matter how much a promotion claims to be for the fans and the performers, business will always come first. At this time, Ricky Starks is still under contract and that does not seem to be changing any time soon.