Adam Copeland Addresses Infamous Promo With Ricky Saints on AEW Collision

During a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri for SHAK Wrestling ahead of Forbidden Door, AEW Tag Team Champion Adam Copeland explained what caused his infamous promo segment with Ricky Saints (formerly Ricky Starks) on AEW Collision in October 2023. During their promo segment, Saints and Copeland took pointed shots at one another, with Saints making fun of Copeland for his “bug eyes,” and Copeland calling Saints a “vanilla midget Rock ripoff.”

During the interview, Mahjouri addressed Copeland about the promo, with Copeland addressing what happened from his personal perspective. Copeland explained, “We got out there. He started cutting a promo on me. I’m like, well ok I’m not in angle with him. Ok. That was it.”

Copeland compared to the many promos during WWE’s Attitude Era. He explained, “It’s just like a thousand promos in the Attitude Era. By the next day, it’s like, okay, now what do we got? Like, I don’t care. I’m sure Ricky doesn’t. I don’t care.”

Ricky Saints later said on the insult by Adam Copeland during a November 2024 interview with Chris Van Vliet, “You may as well call me a great heel, and I hate talking like this, but I got someone so flustered on live TV that they stumbled and stuttered their way into one of the worst insults you can say that is so 2000.”

Saints later departed from AEW in early 2025. He later debuted in WWE NXT a short time after, and he’s currently part of the main WWE roster on SmackDown. Meanwhile, Copeland still wrestles for AEW, where he holds the AEW World Tag Team Titles with Christian Cage.