Though Starks had already had already known Rhodes and other AEW personnel through the independent scene, and from visiting an “AEW Dynamite” taping in Texas back in February 2020, he still wasn’t expecting much when he arrived in Jacksonville to face Rhodes for the TNT Championship in June. Starks received a pre-match video package and praise from many backstage for his performance, but revealed it still took a few days before he became “All Elite.”

“So I have the match,” Starks said. “And then I walk to the back, and people were just like ‘That was good. Good job. Blah blah blah. Good job.’ But I didn’t hear anything about if I had a job or not. People were just like ‘Man, you may have a job. You did really good.’ So I go home, and then the night that it airs, the match itself, I get a text from Tony like ‘I’d like to offer you this deal…I’d like to offer you a contract.’

“The reason this whole thing is crazy is because one, I didn’t think I was going to get signed during a pandemic. I thought afterwards they would’ve came back to me and said ‘Hey, we want to bring you on.’ No, they signed me right then and there. And not only that, it is…I don’t even know another instance of somebody who had…I had a tryout/debut match basically on live TV. And got signed off of it. Like, who else?”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Hold The Mayo” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription