Denise Salcedo

And while he did some good stuff with Ethan Page and Oba Femi, and he was a former NXT champion.

For whatever reason, there still hasn't been that connection between Ricky and the NXT audience.

Now, I'm hoping that he translates different on SmackDown.

And I think that this weekend, honestly, I think it was a good start.

And I'll tell you why.

Because one of my favorite things, Rick, about Ricky Saints is that I love when he shit talks.

That's what I personally think he's one of the best at.

When it comes to just going on the mic,

saying what he wants to say and making people laugh in a way where it's like, shit, he just buried the other person.

And here's the thing, when we saw that on NXT, I didn't think we saw that to the magnitude that we saw that over on AEW.

In fact, I remember when he was beefing with Oba Femi on the mic, it was actually Oba Femi who ended up getting the better end of the stick when it came to the actual promo.

So then I'm thinking, oh, no, like this isn't really going the way that I thought it was going to be going.

I also felt that over on the A.W.

side, I thought Ricky worked best when he was in there with these big stars.

I feel like they brought the best out of him.

I think the high pressure environment really, really works for him.

Feuds with Brian, CM Punk, MJF, you name it.

That's where I think he shines the best.

Right.

So now, with Cody Rhodes, I felt that.