It's no secret that Eddie Kingston is a big fan of All Japan Wrestling.
Whether he's paying tribute to Mitsuharu Misawa through his gear or mentioning AJPW in the majority of his interviews, Kingston has massive respect for the style and history of the promotion.
Fans know the Four Pillars of AJPW (Akira Taue, Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Mitsuharu Misawa) but Jun Akiyama has been referenced as the fifth pillar. And Kingston would love to step into the ring with him.
"That man is a legend. Should be treated as such and spoken of as such," Kingston told Joseph Anthony Montecillo of FanByte. “He always seemed so smug. He was supposed to act like a young lion but he kind of didn’t. I always found that to be really cool. He’s just helping all these young guys out now. Beating them, beating them bad, but he’s teaching them.”
AIW tried to put a match together between Kingston and Akiyama, but it never came to fruition. Akiyama is the reigning DDT KO-D Openweight Champion and AEW has a good relationship with DDT as the DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship has been featured in the promotion and Kenny Omega has ties with the promotion.
When asked about Akiyama coming to the US to face Kingston or Eddie going to Japan for the match, Eddie replied, “Why not both? Why not two, maybe get a third one out of it? I would chop him, smack him, hit him, suplex him just like he would to me. And we would fight and it would be great because I just like fighting in that ring. I know I would learn something from him in the King’s Road style. It would be the highlight of my career.”
Kingston embodied the fighting spirit on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite Road Rager, competing in a street fight against The Young Bucks. The finish saw Kingston eat a thumbtack superkick.
If you missed anything from Wednesday's AEW Dynamite, check out Fightful's full report on the show by clicking here.
