Saturday night was once again alright for fighting as AEW Collision presented its eighth episode, featuring “Real” AEW World Champion CM Punk versus Ricky Starks. The two men have been at odds ever since Starks’ cheated to beat Punk in the Owen Hart Cup finals last month, and to ensure the young star could not cheat again; he enlisted a special guest referee, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat. The WWE Hall of Famer called things down the middle, and Punk retained his title, but following the bout, Starks blindsided Steamboat from behind before beating him down with his own belt.
On today’s Haus of Wrestling episode, I spoke with The Ringer’s Cameron “Ceehawk” Hawkins, who shed some light on how the memorable segment came about.
“A bit of a Collision note,” he began. “So, in the original finish, like after the match, Ricky Steamboat was gonna chop Starks, and that was going to be it. Ricky Steamboat pulls Rick and Punk into a room and tells them the finish that we saw. And, hey, you know when to bring me on; It brought Rick to tears because he appreciated it so much. So, salute to Ricky Steamboat for making a good thing, a great thing.”
Admittedly, I was a bit caught off-guard that Hawkins would drop this awesome piece of knowledge on me mid-show. I asked him how he was able to verify this information, and it sounds like it came from someone directly in the main event mix.
“Well, I mean, you know, that’s my man (Ricky Starks),” he clarified. “And so we talked about how things go and, you know, especially after the match, I was like, ‘You killed it.’ He was like, ‘Cam, like, this is what happened,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool.’ Yeah, man, salute to Steamboat. That’s dope. Because think about how cool and how physical and how visceral that was; Ricky Steamboat’s idea, and his whole thing was, ‘Look, man, this is supposed to make you look good. Not me.'”
It is fun to think about Steamboat and Punk working together to put Starks over in such a big way. The knowledge that the young star’s legendary mentors have put so much faith in him is definitely something that will motivate him going forward.
“He’s typically only brought to tears when Gucci has a sale,” Hawkins joked. “So yeah, man. It was. It was cool, man. He really appreciated that. So, it’s fun seeing the legends give back like that.”
Haus of Wrestling has been able to independently confirm Hawkins’ story about Steamboat, Punk, and Starks.
My full conversation with Hawkins can be found on today’s Haus of Wrestling episode, now available on Premier Streaming Network and the Haus of Wrestling podcast feed.
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