AEW superstar Eddie Kingston recently spoke with Fightful about a wide range of topics, including his love of Japanese wrestling and how happy he is to see a bunch of companies working together. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Talks his love of the Japanese style of wrestling:
“I don’t think people fully understand. Yes, my favorite wrestling was All Japan during the 90s. But I watched New Japan as well. ‘Cause I remember the Three Musketeers. I remember Keiji Muto, aka the Great Muta, who was the first Japanese wrestler I ever saw. Then, of course, there’s Masahiro Chono. I thought the STF was the deadliest move in the world. I remember Jim Ross screaming about it on commentary and Chono learned it from Lou Thesz. That’s a name you know, even if you have never seen him wrestle. But you know the name. Then you had Shinya Hashimoto, who was just a badass. He was my personal favorite. I know the history and it means a lot. That’s why I mentioned Tenryu and Riki Choshu to Ishii, to let him know, ‘I know who trained you, dog. I watched them. I studied them as well. So I know who they are.’ I know the history. That’s why wipe my feet, of course, and I give a kiss to the logo in the middle of the ring—take my hand, put a little kiss on it. out of respect. It feels great. All that political stuff, I didn’t see it. As soon as I was able to work with AEW, and I was lucky enough and blessed enough to do it, STRONG hit me up a couple of weeks later and AEW, even before this working relationship, was like, ‘Yeah, okay. Do it.’ So I never saw all the political side. But for those that did, sorry. Now you don’t have to see it.”
Discusses the number of wrestling companies working together now:
“It’s amazing. It’s an amazing feeling. In my twenty-year career, I have never seen it like this where everybody’s working together. There’s no political B.S. where, ‘I don’t like this person because of whatever.’ It’s, ‘Oh, you want to do the show? Fine, go make your money’ or ‘That’s a really good match-up. Maybe we can show it here.’ Everybody’s starting to work together, which is what I thought wrestling was. Remember, I’m an 80s baby. So I grew up at the tail end of the territories. So I saw, at one point in time, all the territories trying to work together to beat Vince. So I thought that’s the way it was supposed to be. Not to beat Vince, but to work together and have more places to work. I think it’s great. I’ve never seen it like this.”