AEW Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston recently spoke with WrestlingNews.co’s Steve Fall on a number of topics including when he plans to retire and if he has any plans in changing his in-ring style.
Kingston said, “I have to go all the way in or I can’t do it. I can’t half ass it. If I do, then I’m not giving the people what they want. They pay to see me do my thing. And if I back up, or if I half ass it, I’m not giving the people what they paid for. You know what I mean? I know a lot of guys focus on ratings and who’s watching. But for me personally, I worry about the people who actually paid money to come to the show, I care about the mom, the dad or the dad dad or the mom mom, or whatever it is and their kids, because it’s not cheap to come to the show. So when they pay for that, those tickets, I’m thinking about them. And what they paid to see. And now there’s no slowing down. Nothing like that. How long do I have? I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m just gonna keep going until my body says no more. Yeah, I would like to reach 30 years because that’s an old school number. Like a lot of the old school guys back in the day would be like, 30 years is what they wanted. So like I say, 30 but I’m probably gonna go into and so I can’t walk to be honest with you. Terry Funk’s the goat so I learned from him.”
On what Homicide means to him:
“Well, first of all, he’s one of the best wrestlers to ever do it. I think anyone who’s ever shared the ring with him or locker room with him will tell you that on a personal level, I do this my family. He never gave up on me. He would yell at me, constantly. Still does. But he never gave up on me. And always believed in me and always had my back even when everyone else would tell him, ‘Nah, Eddie’s a waste’, or ‘Eddie’s not going to do it.’ He would always be there like “Nah, nah. He can do it. I got him, I got him.’ I know a lot of us do owe Homicide a lot. And either we owe him because helped us on our personal lives. Or we owe him because he helped us in our professional lives. I look at our roster. And a lot of the top guys owe Homicide a lot. Because he helped them get over or, you know, help them, you know, teaming up with him or whatever. You know what I mean. He helped everybody. And that’s his legacy to me is that he’s respected and feared a little bit, because he’s a little whacked out, you know, and that’s why I get along with him. And he’s respected and feared in this business. And he’s someone that is going to be remembered, because we’re not going to let that name die, because he’s done so much for us.”
On getting hired by AEW after calling out Cody Rhodes at an independent show:
Kingston said, “At the time I was working, it was the first independent show since COVID. I went in there and Homicide my mentor was there and he’s like, ‘Hey, man, you got to do something tonight. This is our first independent show back, you have to do something. You have to say something today.’ And I was like, Alright, man, I’ll do it. The promoter didn’t know. So I just grabbed the microphone. And I called out Zack Sabre Jr. Because meaning was supposed to wrestle in England before the pandemic hit. And he’s been ducking me for years. And then I called out Nick Aldis because at the time, I was working for the NWA. And he was NWA World Champ. In my mind then I went, you know what? Why not? Hey Cody Rhodes, you got this open challenge, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I talked all this trash, and I didn’t think nothing of it. And then I guess it got over on Twitter. And I get a phone call from QT Marshall. And he’s like, ‘Hey, you want to fight Cody?’ I said, ‘Yeah, how much?’ Because at that time, I was selling my wrestling gear to pay for my mortgage. Because there was no shows running. So I was like, yeah. I didn’t look at it as a tryout. I didn’t look at it as my way in. I just looked at it as another payday so I can pay off the mortgage for that month, and then I’ll figure out what I can do next month. That’s the way I looked at it.”
The reaction from the AEW locker room for Sting’s last match:
Kingston said, “Tears for his last match. Locker rooms sell out I guess you could say. A lot of us were near the monitors watching it..some of us went out into the audience to just experience that because Sting meant a lot to the pro wrestling business and he meant a lot to AEW. And it meant a lot to all of us because he showed us how to be a pro and what a pro is. Like he’s the definition of a professional wrestler because he’s such a pro.”
Garrett and Steven Borden possibly following their dad’s footsteps into the wrestling business:
Kingston said, “I don’t think they should. Just let it be. Anytime anyone wants to get in the wrestling business I tell them no…It’s a rough business so if you want to get into it just get ready for a lot of long nights and questioning yourself why you’re doing it.”
You can check out Kingston’s comments in the video below.
