Ricky Saints Admits WWE Stars Still Look Down On Him After AEW Exit

Ricky Saints isn’t holding back about the chip on his shoulder after leaving AEW and becoming NXT Champion.

During his recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, the rising WWE star admitted that despite his success, he still feels like certain people in the industry don’t see him as an equal — including some within WWE itself.

The conversation turned to whether he still feels motivated by critics and fans who doubted him after his AEW departure. Saints revealed that the fire he brings on the microphone and in the ring comes from a real place of frustration that still lingers to this day.

“Even to this day I still have a chip on my shoulder, and it’s not just from one thing. You can pull from the reaction from AEW fans to here and vice versa. But it’s even beyond that. Even, you know, I’m sitting across the table from an athlete who looks at me differently — as if he’s better than me, as if, you know, he has somehow had a step above me based off of what I’ve done outside of those four walls.”

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He went even deeper, explaining that this type of attitude follows him everywhere — from daily interactions to training at the Performance Center.

“Those types of feelings I still harbor because it is true and it still is something that I’m dealing with every day when I go to the PC or, you know, when I’m talking to someone. The fact is I don’t want anyone to ever look at me as a less than and then treat me that way. So I’m always fighting for those things.”

Saints’ honesty shows that his fight for respect isn’t over, even as the face of NXT. He’s worked his way from AEW and the independents to WWE gold, but it sounds like his battle for validation behind the scenes continues to fuel his fire.

Ricky Saints has always turned pressure into performance, but the question remains — how long can that fire burn before it burns someone else?

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.