Eddie Kingston went from one of the most well-known and respected names on the Independent scene to one of the hottest acts on national television because Tony Khan handed him a mic.
Kingston answered Cody's open challenge for the AEW TNT Championship on July 22, showing the TNT audience his promo and in-ring skills. During the match and for hours after Dynamite, #SignEddieKingston was trending on Twitter.
“That was very humbling and surprising. I didn’t think that many fans cared, to be honest. It blew me away,” Kingston told Daily DDT. “I said this in other interviews too. I’m getting hit up and they’re telling me, ‘oh, you’re trending,’ and they think this is a joke, but I really didn’t know. I go, ‘oh, so I’m trending, does that mean I get extra money? Do they send me a check? Does Twitter send me a check for trending?’ I don’t know. I don’t get that kind of stuff. You could call me a boomer, I guess. I don’t know even what that is, but to me I didn’t know. God, was it humbling. To the point where, I think it was two weeks after everything and I finally officially signed, I was in Montana with my girlfriend taking a vacation and I just broke down crying. She was like ‘are you okay?’ And I was like ‘yeah, I’m fine, it just kinda hit me now that, okay, people do care, and now I have a contract.’ It just hit me that I’m on national television and I finally have a contract with a big company,” Kingston said. “And I just remember wiping the tears away and looking at her and just going ‘I love you, but now the real work begins.’ And she’s a BJJ black belt, so she was just like ‘yep, let’s get to work.’ And I was just like ‘oh, I guess I do have to get to work.’ So that was it.”
Kingston has been a staple on AEW Dynamite since signing with the promotion, even challenging Jon Moxley for the AEW World Title on a recent episode.
If he has his way, AEW will be the last stop before he officially calls it a career.
“AEW’s my last stop. I’m not goin’ anywhere else. I’m 38 years old and been doing this, actually is today October 12? Yeah, I been doing it 19 years today. I’m not goin’ anywhere else, man. It’s sink or swim with this company. I’m not gonna sink, I’ll say that much. I won’t sink, and I won’t let the company sink,” Kingston said. "Everyone can say ‘you’re bein’ a company man, you’re sellin’ out,’ this and that. Hey bro, like I said, I was broke. I was broke durin’ the pandemic. I paid off all my bills I could with the money I made in the UK before I came home, and after that I was sittin’ at home broke. I’m hungry, and I’m not gonna let anything stop me or AEW or put me in that situation again where I’m sitting in my house going ‘I may have to sell this.’ I’m not gonna get myself in that situation again.”
Kingston went on to say that he believes he has another ten years left in the ring thanks to massage therapy, seeing a chiropractor, and being able to afford a suana.
Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Dynamite beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
