Eddie Kingston had one opportunity to make a good impression when he answered Cody's open challenge on AEW Dynamite.
Given time on the mic and in the ring, Kingston impressed the top brass in AEW and earned a contract following his appearance. For years, Kingston had been considered one of the top Independent talents in the world, putting in time, blood, sweat, and tears in top companies like ROH and IMPACT.
But why didn't he get a bigger opportunity sooner?
"I was fat," Kingston told Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho. "I was 290 pounds. Now, I'm 230-240. I got a call to go to Osaka Pro in 2011. I said, 'I'm not going there and embarrassing myself.' I lost the weight, started working out more, and I fluctuated. That, and my big mouth. Behind the scenes. There were moments where I should have shut up and I didn't. Not to name names, but I told plenty of promoters 'fuck you, where the fuck is my money?' I talk shit about guys to their face, especially early in my career. People are like, 'Hey, he has Indie cred.' I don't care. 'They'll bury you to so and so,' and they did."
Kingston noted that he hasn't changed who he is as a person, but he has matured and used his energy for the more important things.
Kingston did sign with IMPACT in 2016 after doing a WWE tryout, but things didn't work out due to factors outside of the ring.
"I got a tryout with WWE and two days later I signed with IMPACT. I wasn't gonna wait six to eight weeks, you already know if you want me or not. They were like, 'Okay.' I'm gonna take the money and go. I was with a girl and she wanted a house really bad, so I signed with IMPACT. Something went down, I'm not gonna get too deep into it because people who need to know, know. I was defending my woman, I went off, and instead of people fighting me, they fucked with my money. They didn't book me and wouldn't let me out of my contract. I had it coming because how am I gonna say, 'How dare you hire XYZ? If I go there, I'm gonna fuck him up and whoever hired him.' 'Oh, really?' I went in, ready to go. Shane Helms goes, 'Eddie, calm down.' Jeff Jarrett was in charge and he said something that triggered me. I went to him and said, 'I want my fucking release' and I walked away. I apologized, I was told to apologize, I didn't want to, and they did what they did. If I was in control and someone was acting up, I would do that," he said.
Kingston and IMPACT parted ways in October 2017. He said he and Jarrett are cool now and he checked in on Jeff as he went through his personal issues with alcohol in 2017.
Elsewhere during the interview, Kingston discussed getting signed by AEW and WWE reaching out to him following his AEW appearance. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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