AEW Rewind: Curious case of the missing Ricky Starks, Athena bullying interviewers, more!

Don’t have time to follow all of AEW’s online content? Don’t worry. We got you covered with the AEW Rewind, which will rewind through social media bits and YouTube videos from the past week to prepare you for Wednesday night Dynamite.

We’ll start with a mystery afoot. AEW has a curious case of the missing Ricky Starks. Absolute was rammed into a steel curtain by Lance Archer last week on Dynamite. That felt like a spot to create heat for the scheduled bout on Rampage in the world title eliminator tournament. Then, the match was postponed for Dynamite this week. That was understandable in story with Starks needing to be medically cleared after the violent beatdown.

However, AEW never made that bout official during Rampage when announcing the Wednesday night lineup. A few hours before showtime, and the Starks match is still not listed on the card.

Starks and Archer are getting the short end of the stick if their fight doesn’t take place on Dynamite. That will mean either man has to win two matches in one night to get to the final with the quarterfinal bout and the semifinal contest against Brian Cage.

To be clear, this situation does not appear to be a medical issue for Starks. As of Tuesday, he was promoting the tournament and AEW appearances for Rampage and Full Gear.

This week’s ‘Road to’ video skipped over Dynamite to hype Full Gear for Dr. Britt Baker DMD versus Saraya, Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett versus Darby Allin & Sting, Jade Cargill versus Nyla Rose for the TBS Championship, and Jungle Boy versus Luchasaurus inside a steel cage. The video was mostly recap footage and analysis from commentators. It’s good to put you in the mood for the PPV but not necessary to consume prior to Dynamite.

Anthony Bowens has a chance to put hands on Swerve Strickland prior to the PPV tag title defense. The intent is payback for Swerve damaging Billy Gunn’s scissor fingers. This tweet was the catalyst for the singles bout to be booked.

Stokely Hathaway is searching for the secret to Hook’s chips power.

With Lee Moriarty angling for a shot at the FTW Championship, Hathaway sent a message to Lay’s:

Hello,

First of all, “Taiga Style” Lemon Pepper Cheetos would go crazy. I thought about the flavor and immediately starting humming Jill Scott lyrics. I digress —

I would like to test your Lay’s chips inventory before Full Gear. HOOK, the FTW Champion, consumes your Lay’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’ve been eating chips on the reg for 30 years and my doctor told me I’d end up like Big Mama in Soul Food. He’s been eating them for 23 years and can do 100 push-ups with one hand. The math ain’t mathin. I just want to understand.

May God Bless you,
Stokely

In other Firm business, Ethan Page sucked the hot air out of the balloon of joy when the Hardy Party was victorious in trios action. Page was not satisfied with their effort and declared that he would be ringside next time for live coaching.

Touching on interesting nuggets from Elevation and Dark, Daniel Garcia earned a pair of wins over Leon Ruffin and Brock Anderson defending the ROH Pure Championship. Enforcement of the Pure rules was a mixed bag. The referee clearly missed a rope-break by Ruffin. Both bouts were decent matches for Dark material. AR Fox defeated Serpentico to garner his first win in AEW. Fox will be teaming with the reunion of Top Flight brothers for a trios title shot against Death Triangle. Athena continued her mean streak. After beating Kayla Sparks, she hit an O-Face flying stunner as an extra assault. Athena also clobbered LMK. While waiting for the legal O-Face, LMK was too slow to stand. Athena jumped down to pound more pain for victory. Athena decided that a post-match beatdown wasn’t worth her time. Backstage, Athena’s aggression carried over into bullying interviewers.

Being the Elite remains on hiatus until further notice.

Butcher, Blade, and Bunny were the latest guests on RJ City’s talk show, Hey! (EW). Topics of discussion included living in the magical city of Buffalo, Blade bringing back chest hair to professional wrestling, and Oreo cookie flavors. It was mostly harmless chatter with City plying his trade with puns and inquisitive pestering.

We’ll close with a Ten Days of Black Friday sale at the AEW shop starting Friday, November 18.