Eddie Kingston is the guest on this week’s episode of “Talk Is Jericho” with Chris Jericho.
Kingston talked about his journey to get back to Florida (that included a $200 Uber ride), being a self-proclaimed “mama’s boy,” his days with Chikara and Impact Wrestling, the public challenge he issued to Cody Rhodes, how he was signed to an AEW contract and more.
Here are some highlights:
Eddie Kingston told us how he got the call from AEW: “The pandemic hit. I was in the U.K. doing a tour. When I got home, all my U.K. money was gone because I had to pay bills. I have a house in Florida and all that stuff. I finally got an indie show. I was going to the indie show and I was mad that I had to sell my gear to pay my mortgage. When the pandemic hit, I thought, wow, this is how my career ends. I had a chance to cut a promo on an indie show and I went off. I called out Zack Sabre Jr because I was supposed to wrestle him in England. Then I called out Nick Aldis because at the time I was working NWA. I thought for sh*ts and giggles, let me call out Cody because he was doing this open challenge. I went off and said, you talk about an open challenge but you’re not facing men. You’re facing signed talent that is not going to hurt you. I’m friends with the Bucks and Kenny so I said and oh, by the way, the guys that you run the company with like me better than you, just to joke around. People believed it. Out of nowhere, people were tweeting and hashtagging face Eddie or whatever it is. I’m not very good at Twitter. I’m thinking, what is this? I then got a phone call from Q.T. Marshall and he asked if I wanted to wrestle Cody and I said yes. I took it as another booking because I didn’t see it as oh, I’m going to go in there and they are going to be wowed by me and sign me. I went in thinking I will go in there, do my job, and go home.”
Kingston explained how AEW then signed him: “I know almost everybody in this company. Christopher Daniels calls me up and says they want to bring me back. I come in. I got a call from the competition. To be honest to them, they were trying to get me to coach for years. My thing was, I told them I can’t collect a paycheck if I don’t earn it. My thing was I would go in there, coach, be bitter and mad about coaching and not getting a shot, and these guys that love wrestling now because they are at the Performance Center and getting paid, I would have been bitter and angry. I would not have done a good job. I would have been detrimental to those kids. I said, no, I’m good. Anyway, now we are talking about other things besides coaching. I had to weigh my options. I came here and I told a couple people, look, the competition hit me up. I’m just letting you know. I’m not begging for a job. It’s very hard for me to play this supposed wrestling game. Next thing you know, Christopher Daniels said here is a contract. I didn’t deal with the reaction until last week where in front of my lady friend, I broke down crying and then I was good. Now it’s time to go to work.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Talk Is Jericho with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription
