After sharing his thoughts on fiancée Samatha Irvin's decision to leave WWE, AEW star Ricochet has opened up on when he realised his time in the company had reached its end.
He debuted in AEW on August 25 and had his last match against Andrade on the X-exclusive Speed series. However, he was written off television after being brutally attacked by Bron Breakker in a backstage segment meant to put the current Intercontinental Champion over.
"I think they kind of left it open-ended for a reason, nobody really knew at that point what was going to happen," he tells Chris Van Vliet of the attack. "I think they were trying to leave it a little open-ended. I think we were still talking. So I think that’s why they kind of did it the way they did it, especially because Ricochet, he could have come right back in a couple of weeks."
"But no, it just didn’t go that way. Then I went this way and I’m really happy with everything that’s happened so far and, yeah, It’s been great."
Asked whether that segment with Breakker was the moment he realised it was time to walk away from WWE, Ricochet admitted that even he wasn't sure what his future looked like at that point.
"Not even necessarily, no. So I knew my contract was ending in June, mid-June, give or take. But all the way up to that point there was never a point where I knew I was leaving. I think it was just again, there was a point three and a half years ago into my WWE career where I just said this isn’t what I want to do."
"I feel like if they did give me a bone here or there, and I was always on television. I was always showcased on television. So that was always nice," he continued. "But I felt like it was always for Shinsuke, for Sami, for Sheamus, for someone else. It was never Ricochet’s story. Even with Logan, it was for Logan. They gave me little bits and pieces, but it was really for Logan to move on to something else."
"After a while, it’s just like, 'Ah, man,' and again, anything can happen at any turn of the road. It could have been the next week they could have been like now we’re doing this. So that’s always a chance, but at the end of the day, I think I was really just trying to find out where I was going to be the happiest," the former United States Champion added.
Despite Triple H doing more with him than Vince McMahon, it appears that fresh start wasn't enough for Ricochet.
"I still feel like I was starting over again. I felt like I was starting over with the Bron Breakkers and the Iljas and the Carmelos and the new guys just coming in. I feel like Ricochet was with those guys coming back in, it’s like, man I’ve already been here for five or six years, I want to be doing something else."
It remains to be seen whether Ricochet can find a greater level of success in AEW, though he's already returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling for the first time in seven years to issue a challenge to Zack Sabre Jr, for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
That match will take place at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5, 2025, at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.