Cody Rhodes and Ricky Starks put on a great show when the two battled for the TNT title

AEW star and current TNT champion Cody Rhodes had some great things to say about Ricky Starks on the Busted Open podcast.

Cody was wished on his birthday by Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray, while they also wanted to get his thoughts on the talents on AEW.

Cody has been defending his AEW TNT title against some of the up and coming stars on the promotion. While he is yet to lose a match, the American Nightmare was asked which talent had benefited the most from going up against him.

Cody claimed he was his biggest critic, and was also looking to get into the next gear. The champion added that he always wants to improve upon this, especially in the next match.

When speaking about who benefited from being in the ring, Cody added that fighting against Marq Quen helped as they are polar opposites.

Cody also spoke starting the TNT open challenge correctly with Jungle Boy getting a shot, but he also explained that the signing of Starks wasn’t on the agenda initially:

“I have loved every match I have had. Ricky Starks is such a unique example too. The open challenge was not intended on ‘let’s give people a job’, that’s not what it’s intended on.

“If you win the title, of course you are gonna become an AEW member of the roster, but in the case of Ricky Starks, as soon as I got in the ring, I looked at him and thought he has got a like a swag, a presence that we are missing in some areas here.”

Khan impressed by Starks

Tony Khan is the other person who is responsible for making AEW as big as it has become.

Cody spoke about the boss also being impressed by Starks and he too wanted to sign the former NWA World Television Champion:

“Tony Khan thought the exact same thing as he walked back through the curtain, that was a done deal. That was something I had not planned for, so really proud of Ricky Starks.

“I am proud of the open challenge to be able to do that.”

Cody has done a lot of great things on AEW with his open challenge, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Starks has held several titles during his time in the indies, and he will be a great signing for AEW. Cody also claimed that Wardlow is one star who has a bright future ahead of him in AEW.

Wardlow is mostly known to side with MJF but the behemoth could break out soon on AEW.

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