Ricky Starks Addresses Adam Copeland Calling Him a ‘Vanilla Midget Rock Ripoff’

– MIA AEW star Ricky Starks was a guest on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he discussed WWE Hall of Famer Adam Copeland referring to him as a “vanilla midget Rock ripoff” during an October 2023 edition of AEW Collision. Starks think he handled the situation well and came out of it OK. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

On Adam Copeland calling him a “vanilla midget Rock ripoff”: “He called me ‘a vanilla midget Rock ripoff.’ That clip goes viral all the time. It’s so funny because, at the end of it, I wanted to say more. You see me smile and say, ‘That really sent me over the Edge.’ I only did that because I knew this was about to get off track. Here’s the thing about that. 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. A vanilla midget? I could have hit him with the, ‘I’m black, you idiot,’ but I didn’t.”

On how he didn’t come out of the situation looking bad: “Personally, out of all that, I don’t think Ricky Starks came out of all that looking very bad. It wasn’t me that looked bad in that whole situation. It is what it is. People say, ‘AEW is where the unscripted promos are,’ and then someone is like, ‘Ricky went off-script.’ How? What did I do? What a great promo that was. There is not script. How is it possible to go off-script if there is no script to begin with? I didn’t say anything crazy. I just called someone bug eyes. What was wrong with that? How is that any different than calling someone fat? Bug eyes is very F-Tier.”

Ricky Starks last wrestled on AEW TV in March. He is rumored to be under contract to AEW through the spring/summer of 2025.