Quoted By:
Per Ibou of Wrestlepurists:
>Ricky Starks and Will Ospreay were originally pencilled in to feud for most of this summer and have a blowoff match at All In. The original plan was for Ricky to claim he was owed a world title shot for winning the Owen last year. He would run afoul of Ospreay after Ospreay won the Casino Gauntlet, including a planned match where Ricky would beat Kyle Fletcher and then smash him with the repurposed “real world title” bag that Punk used last summer.
>In the original pitch, there was no title involved, but Ricky would be calling himself “the uncrowned world champion” and would repeatedly attack Will during Dynamite and pick up several major wins along the way.
>Ricky rejected this story, possibly because the All In match was planned with him losing to Ospreay. A revised version of the story was pitched where Ricky would win the continental title and rename it the Real World Title, similar to MJF’s American title, but this was also rejected. A third and final pitch involved Ricky vs Liger at Forbidden Door, with Ricky winning, but this was rejected for unknown reasons.
