Ricky Starks Believes Feud With CM Punk Has Given "Renewed Sense of Myself"

Meanwhile, Starks joined in for an interview with Alicia Atout and he opened up on his feud 'The Second City Saint.' The former FTW Champion stated that the storyline with Punk has given him a renewed sense of himself. In addition to this, Ricky Starks also talked about not having a match when Punk first arrived in AEW. He said:

“It’s been really good for me I feel like (Starks said about working with CM Punk on Collision). I have a renewed sense of myself and I have a renewed sense of, you know, something of substance type thing and I remember back then when he had all these — he was facing (Powerhouse) Hobbs and all these other people and I was like, ‘Damn, what about me?’ I did feel some type of way because in my mind, it is great to wrestle somebody with that type of experience.” [ H/t POST Wrestling]

“I don’t think people realize Punk is one of the few guys that have gone from the independents of the old, went through the transition of WWE and that whole system. Then went into the other transition of when it was really corporate WWE and now he’s here. He’s one of the very few. Him, Bryan (Danielson), people like that-that have gone through that system and they know. They’ve seen all those different phases of wrestling.”

Ricky Starks: Being in there with Punk obviously makes me a better person

Furthermore, Starks said that working with Punk feels like iron sharpening iron and he has been 'swimming' lately. He wants to compete against people who are better than him. He added:

“So it’s great to have just because iron sharpens iron and I think being in there with Punk obviously makes me a better person because in my head, there’s a lot of pressure that I put on myself to step up the plate so to speak. As they say on the internet, it’s sink or swim and I’ve been swimming quite a bit. So, it’s great, it really is and these are things that are needed. It’s cool to wrestle someone that’s on the same level as me, but I really don’t want that.

I want to wrestle someone that is way better than me, that is beyond my years, you know what I’m saying? And I feel like everybody should strive for that. I want to wrestle someone that definitely could eat my lunch. I would love that. I would want to be on the mic against someone that could destroy me. Let’s do it, let’s see how that goes.”

We will have to wait and see if Ricky Starks once again manages to get the better of CM Punk on this Saturday's AEW Collision.

Related: CM Punk Takes Swipe At Botched T-Shirt from AEW Merch Team