AEW star Eddie Kingston recently spoke with the New York Post to talk all things pro-wrestling, including how WWE offered him a coaching position and what it was like for him growing up in the Big Apple. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On WWE offering him a coaching position and how he decided to remain a performer:
It means the world to me. It also means when I win the world title it’s gonna mean more, too, because I can go to my mother and tell her, ‘I’m sorry I never gave you a grandkid, Mom. Mom, I’m sorry I never got married, I’m sorry I put you through all this stuff, but look I did it for this.’ And that’s gonna mean so much to me that I can explain to her, this is why I did all the stuff I did. It was for this.
Finding out he was signed to AEW and breaking down:
I just started crying in the car. I didn’t understand why I was crying and my girlfriend was just like, ‘Let it go, let it out because you reached a goal. You did it.’ I was like, damn. I was gonna be broke and homeless and back living with my parents. It hit me then. I just started bawling in the car and apologizing for crying. That whole New York tough guy thing, I can’t let anyone see me cry.
Growing up in New York:
I learned about racism in like second grade. Being called a spic, spic-ghetti, spic and span. By sixth, seventh grade I was like well, next person who makes fun of me I’m gonna start swinging. As I got older as a teenager and even early 20s … I was so angry and I was just known as the fighter of the neighborhood.
How he wasn’t afraid to tell promoters off:
I’ve told the wrong promoters to eff off. I told off the wrong guys who had some sort of indie cred, indie power or power in other places. I told them off. To me, if you’re a scumbag, just because you’re a wrestler that’s been in the business an ‘X’ amount of years I’m not gonna show you respect.