New AEW star Eddie Kingston was on a recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast where he discussed his first run in Impact Wrestling where he signed with them two days after his WWE tryout. He detailed the troubles he had in his first run at Impact.
"I got a tryout with WWE, and then two days later, I signed with Impact," Kingston revealed. "I was like, 'look man, I'm not waiting six to eight weeks. I'm not waiting that long. You ready know if you want me or not.' They were like, oh, OK,' and I was like, 'yeah, I'm gonna take this money and go.' I was with a girl. I'm not going to bury her folks, but I was with a girl, and she wanted a house really bad. So I signed with Impact. Something went down. I'm not going to get too deep into it because people who need to know know. Me defending my woman, I went off, and instead of people fighting me, they do what they do, which is they f--king around with my money and basically just didn't book me, wouldn't let me out of my contract.
"You know what? I had it coming because how am I going to go and say, 'hey motherf--ker, how dare you hire XYZ. If I go there, I'm f--king him up and whoever hired him, and they're like, 'oh really?' So I went in ready to go. Shane Helms, love him to death, just goes, 'hey Eddie, calm down. Let's try to talk this out,' and Jeff Jarrett was there at the time in charge. Me and Jeff are good now and Jeff said something that kind of triggered me, and I just went to Jeff and I go, 'I want my f--king release.' And I walked away."
Kingston would return to Impact Wrestling in 2017 where he was involved in a feud with Santana and Ortiz. However, Kingston recalls blowing off Santana and Ortiz on their Impact debut as well as apologizing for his outbursts. He admits that he does not blame management for their decisions saying he would have done the same if he was in their position.
"Santana and Ortiz, actually that was their debut," Kingston recalled. "Homicide's original LAX with Hernandez. He was there with Santana and Ortiz introducing them as the new LAX, and it was their first day and they love this story. It's their first day and I didn't see them yet, and I had the discussion with Jeff. And I go walking by and I'm f--king pissed up full of piss and vinegar, and they were like, 'yo Eddie, what's up?' I said, 'Not now' and I just kept walking, and they were like, 'yo, it's our first day. it's our first day,' but then, I apologized.
"I was told to apologize. I didn't want to, and then they did what they did. And I don't blame them thought. I don't blame them because if I was in control [and] somebody acted up, I would do that and be like, 'you know what, we're gonna starve him out.'"
Kingston said that the WWE tryout was his first and last. He noted that William Regal had tried to get him hired, but he said he needed the money right away and could not wait on WWE.
"No, that was it. Just one try out," Kingston admitted. "Again, because I was fat. I was fat, and I talked all this s--t and did what I wanted. Just had the tryout and William Regal, great guy to me. I think he was always trying to get me there, but again, I made my own choices. Again, I needed money. I needed to get my ex, at the time, a house."
Kingston made his AEW debut on July 22nd in a losing effort to Cody. Kingston also revealed that Christopher Daniels approached Kingston about returning to AEW, and at the same time, WWE came in with an offer to sign. Chris Jericho made the assumption most would make thinking that WWE was opportunistic in trying to sign Kingston after his debut on AEW. However, Kingston revealed that WWE has approached him in the past about coaching at the Performance Center, and he explained why he turned that deal down.
"Christopher Daniels hit me. Just to let everyone know, I know almost everybody in this company for multiple years," Kingston noted. "He calls me up and goes, 'hey, man, we want to bring you back.' I said, 'yeah, sure.' Again, just a booking, at the time, I'm thinking. I come in. I get a call from the competition.
"Of course you do right," Jericho remarked. "After you were on TV."
"Well to be honest to them, they were trying to get me to coach for years," Kingston prefaced. "But my thing was, and I told them, 'I can't collect a paycheck if I didn't earn it.' They were like, 'what do you mean,' and my thing was I was going to go in there, coach, be bitter and angry about coaching, not getting a shot. And these guys, they love wrestling now because they're at the Performance Center. No offense to them, but when you're on the road getting paid hot dogs and soda, you know.
"I would have been so bitter and angry I wouldn't have done a good job, and I would have been detrimental to those kids. So I was like nah, I'm good. Now they were talking about other things besides coaching. I had to weigh my options and I came here, and I told a couple of people, 'hey, look, competition hit me up just letting you know. I'm not begging for a job.' It's very hard for me to play this supposed wrestling political game."
Kingston continued saying that after he informed AEW that he had an offer from WWE, that Daniels approached Kingston with a formal contract offer. Kingston admitted that he became emotional because of the hard work he had put in his career and seeing his peers sign over him.
"I just said that to them, and then next thing you know, Christopher Daniels just goes, 'hey, here's a contract,'" Kingston revealed. "I said, 'excuse me?' He says, 'here's a contract.' I said, 'yeah, I'm going to read it over. Let me digest this real quick.' After 18 years of busting my a--, loving this, seeing guys who I helped make it and that's fine. Let's be honest, there's always a little bit of hatred there like, yeah, I helped these motherf--kers. Now they're in WWE or AEW, and I'm still stuck here. You're happy for them, but there's still a feeling there because it's competition.
"I was just blown away. I was blown away by the reaction. I didn't deal with the reaction until last week in front of the my lady friend. I broke down crying, and she was like, 'why you crying?' I was like, 'I can't believe this.' She's like, 'oh, this is old.' I go, 'yeah, I just never dealt with it.' I broke down crying, and I went OK, enough. Now it's time to go to work. It's time to make AEW money. It's time to be a top star, whatever it is. It's time to go, and that's it."
*Credit* Talk Is Jericho & Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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