Ricky Saints Opens Up About His NXT Journey with WWE and Collaborating with Cody Rhodes on His Debut

RICKY SAINTS has arrived on WWE’s main roster and for many fans, it was a long time coming.

Even when he was thriving in AEW, fans could see he was perfect for ‘s style of entertainment with his undeniable charisma and million- dollar look.

Ricky Saints has quickly settled into life on the WWE main roster On his first night, he faced close friend Cody Rhodes

The fact he can go once the bell goes only adds to the allure and now, he’s showing everyone under the brightest lights that he can hang with the best.

Saints arrived on SmackDown back in late April, and his first match was against the company’s resident babyface, .

SunSport caught up with the 36-year-old to discuss his road to WWE and how he has made his mark.

How did you get the call you were moving from NXT to the main roster?

“I don’t remember exactly the conversation that was had, but I do remember getting a call and being like, hey, we’re gonna be in Dallas and you’re gonna come to SmackDown. And then when I got the SmackDown, they kind of laid out what it was for me.

“There’s no cool or special way that it happened. I just showed up and that was it. So I think even when I debuted, it’s just been feet on the ground, running hard as I can.

“Flying there, I was just like, wow, OK, perfect, this is it, this is what I’ve been asking for and this is what I deserve, and it’s about time. Like that’s my mind and that’s my way of making sure that I get myself in the right place that I need to.

Old AEW friends Jade Cargill, CM Punk, Ricky Saints and Cody Rhodes with WWE gold

“Because when you overthink and when you start thinking of things that haven’t happened yet, you are going to throw yourself so out of whack that it’s not even funny.

“So I maintain that type of confidence of like. This is what it is, this is what I asked for, yes, let’s go.”

You worked with real-life close friend Cody Rhodes on your first night – did he lobby for that to happen at all?

“I think it was a lucky storm. I don’t think he [lobbied]. I think it’s just what would be best for business, what would be best for the show, and, you know, I think it’s always good to give some fan service to people who kind of know.

“And I wasn’t gonna say anything about it! That was the best that I could get, you know, that was as good of a situation that it could ever been, that I could ever imagine. And now look.”

How was your experience down in NXT? You could have well skipped that stage, but did you appreciate being able to polish your skills and prep for the main roster?

“Every company has its type of, policy procedure, so to speak, right?
They have a way that they want to bring in someone new to get them acclimated to how everything works, and well, yes, there are some people who just were thrown on the main roster and, and you know, you had to figure it out.

“There are some people who had to go down into the Performance Centre because as a business, there are some things that needed to be done or they needed help with or whatever the case may be.

“I don’t necessarily know for myself, but I will say this: It was better to go down there to get used to everything than to just be thrown on the main roster, and you have to remember I came at a time where ‘Mania is kind of already in full swing.

“So there is a chance that I could have been on there and you just wouldn’t have seen me for months on end. So, you know, there’s that.

“The experience for NXT was fine, it was cool. I enjoyed it. I met a lot of great people, it was cool.

“Obviously the main roster has always been the goal here, and I don’t care if anyone likes hearing that or not. That’s just my life and my career. It should be the goal.

“So I didn’t take it as a slight to myself or anything like that. It’s just one of the things when you gamble on yourself, you have to be ready and willing to do whatever it is to make sure that pays off. And as you’ve seen throughout my career, there’s a lot of gambling that I do.

“I build a little nest and I go, man, it’s not what I want, and then I just destroy the nest and go on and figure it out.”

You’re known to be a studious wrestler. How has it been picking some brains in WWE and at the Performance Center?

“I am a very studious person. I love wrestling to the nth degree. There’s a lot of great people at that Performance Centre that you’re able to pick their brains.

“Having Fit Finlay around just randomly is great. You just have a random conversation with Michael Hayes, right? Paul Heyman has come down there before.

“Seth [Rollins] has come to shows, and at that time I was picking their brains. Now that I’m on the main roster, it’s a lot easier to just talk to Michael Hayes or Paul Heyman, or go to and ask for certain things.

“I think that’s always what I’ve wanted out of my career is to have the resources to make myself as good as I want to be. And when you’re starved for information, it’s very hard.

“When you don’t have it available to you, and then when you do, it’s like, yes, tell me about this time etc etc, you know?”

William Regal once told me he planned to sign you, Daniel Garcia, andWheelere Yuta to NXT, but WWE had a change of directive at the time and he couldn’t. That was four years ago. How great is it to link back up with him now?

“You gotta realise, I’ve known William Regal just as long as I’ve been wrestling, actually. I met him, I want to say, five months after I had my debut, my first match in wrestling.

“So it was great to see him, again, of course, and I think sometimes that some of these people who’ve known me for so long, they have a little slight like ‘hell yeah, he did it’ type thing.

“And then of course, Bryan Danielson was another great one, another person who’s gone on record to say, especially after our strap match, like this guy, this guy right here. He took care of me.

Saints made his SmackDown debut at the end of April and is established in the US title picture Saints is playing a bad guy on TV, but fans can’t help but cheer him

“This guy, he gave me his stamp of approval and you can’t ask for anything else better than that.”

Would you agree that now has been the right time for you to arrive in WWE?

“I think I’m in agreement with you. Sometimes I think about how I did a trial in 2017 and didn’t get signed, and I thought that was the end of the world for me.

“But then I also think like where would I have been able to survive – I’m sure I would have – but I think it would have been 10 times harder for me back then than it is now because of my perspective.

“Every question I’ve had today has been just ‘so, what’s the biggest challenges for you since moving up to the main roster’ and I’d literally say with full confidence, there isn’t any real challenge, so to speak.

“There are challenges, but there’s nothing different. There’s nothing that was so shocking to my system.

“I think this is probably the best time for me to be here because of the lessons that I’ve learned and the person who I am and using that to the best of my ability in terms of getting what I want and going to places that I had envisioned.”