Top AEW Star Eddie Kingston recently appeared as a guest on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast to talk about a number of topics such as his tryouts with WWE, rumors of him retiring at one point, what else he wants to accomplish in professional wrestling such as facing top NJPW Stars Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jun Akiyama and who motivates him.
Below are the highlights:
On his tryouts with WWE:
“This was at the PC, Jimmy Jacobs hooked me up with it. He said, ‘You want a tryout?’ I said, ‘Yes, sure, let’s go.’ To me, that tryout was more for the Mae Young Classic because it was the biggest class they had for females. I was like, alright, I get it. This was for females so I went in and had fun.
They had someone filming and they asked, ‘King, tell them how hard this drill is?’ I said, ‘It was hard. I’ve had people shoot at me and try to stab me with knives and God, I hate this drill more than that.’ They put the camera down and everyone looked at me like I was nuts because I said guns and knives. I remember I was doing the promo class and I said, ‘Where I come from, they believe in Tupac more than Santa Claus.’ I saw two writers have this confused look on their face when I said it. I went, oh yea, I’m done. Let me just go have my match and I’ll leave.”
On rumors of him retiring at one point:
“I’ll tell you the retirement story. I saw something on the other side that bothered me so much that I was drinking a lot of whiskey that night. I saw something on the TV that chapped my a*s a little bit as you can say. I could be a violent person, so I was breaking things in my house after a couple drinks.
I said I never wanted to feel like that again so I think it’s time for me to go if something crazy doesn’t happen. Something crazy did happen. My brother had a kid and my brother said, ‘How can I tell my son not to quit on anything when his uncle did?’ He said it to me when I was leaving and I was giving him the finger the whole time I was leaving. That’s why I stayed.”
On what else he wants to accomplish in professional wrestling such as facing top NJPW Stars Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jun Akiyama:
“Tanahashi is number one. Stone Cold Steve Austin is my favorite American wrestler. So, to me, Tanahashi is Stone Cold Steve Austin of New Japan. He saved that company. I want to step into an All Japan Pro Wrestling ring because I loved All Japan Pro Wrestling in the ‘90s with the four pillars, Misawa, Taue, Kawada, and my personal favorite of all time, Kenta Kobashi. But I need this. It’s not even a want. I need me vs Jun Akiyama. That would be the cap on everything.”
On who motivates him:
“Ok, I motivate myself, and I got a very small knit of friends, like a family, who motivate me; and actually know how to talk to me to get me going. Homicide’s number one, that’s my best friend. Low Ki, is another one, y’know what I mean.
When I talk to Mox, he motivates me by just him being him, y’know what I mean, just making me laugh. Brodie still motivates me. I think about my Mom and my Dad, and stuff like that. Just weird things like that run through my head when I’m like ‘Okay, I’m a get up’. My girlfriend motivates me – for the first time in my life a girlfriend motivates me.”
