Triple Crown Champion Eddie Kingston reflects on humble beginnings, successes, and the future

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - In a one-on-one sit down with FOX 8, Triple Crown Champion Eddie Kingston opened up about his wrestling journey and current success.

Ever since he was nine years old, Kingston has wanted to become a pro wrestler. The Yonkers, New York native began cutting his teeth in the pro wrestling world in 2002 on the independent circuits, training and wrestling in nearby Philadelphia in a company called Chikara. Since then, he’s wrestled across the world with the biggest names in the business while amassing a following and leaving behind a no-nonsense legacy of grit, desire, and passion.

“I still see myself as the kid on the corner of 37th Street mentally,” Kingston said.

Kingston’s come a long way from wrestling in gymnasiums for dozens of people, or sometimes less. Now, a main event star in All-Elite Wrestling, which broadcasts on national TV, Kingston has more eyes on him than ever.

“No pressure right?” he joked. “That’s weird. That gives me a panic attack. I’ve told people that like, I don’t like attention. Because to me, I’m doing what I wanted to do since I was nine years old. So I don’t see the big deal about it. I do miss those days when things were simpler, but I also love these times, because this is what I worked for. This is what comes with the territory.”

“In any entertainment or any sport, if you decide to do it and then you get mad about what comes with it, then you weren’t really ready. You didn’t grasp what it was. If they tell me I gotta do media from 6:30 in the morning to 5:30 at night... I’m the first person to be like ‘yeah, okay.’ Because that’s the deal. This is what we have to do.”

Kingston said the three championships he holds now; the AEW Continental Championship, the ROH World Championship, and the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, are not the measure of his success, but family pride.

“The way I look at it is, my mom’s proud? Then okay. Then I’m successful,” he said. “My mom’s not proud? Then I gotta change my direction in life. My mother, people can make fun of me about it, but she’s really my best friend. So she’ll let me know what’s right or wrong.”

Kingston reflected on his role as the Ring of Honor World Champion. Previous champions include guys who shared the early 2000s locker rooms with him in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Chikara who are now with him at the top of the game, selling out stadiums.

“I was in the audience at a Ring of Honor show called Night of Appreciation for Eddie Guerrero. I remember sitting in that audience, seeing Low Ki against AJ Styles, and Donovan Morgan against Christopher Daniels, Eddie Guerrero and Amazing Red against SAT. And now I’m the world champion. It took me a minute like everything hit me, like a flood of all the emotions. It means so much to me and it’s weird how life works. Seeing Samoa Joe world champion? Seeing my mentor Homicide on pay-per-views for TNA or in videos, and he has his own action figure. It inspired me because he was a dude from Brooklyn. So when I saw him doing that, I was like ‘oh I can do that, too.’”

There wasn’t one single moment when Kingston said he felt like his career transitioned into the superstar he is now, but said wrestling overseas in Japan turned his childhood dream into reality.

In late 2021, Kingston made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling. In June of the following year, he was announced as a participant in the upcoming G1 Climax tournament. Before the start of the tournament, Kingston defeated Kenta to become the Strong Openweight Champion.

“When I finally went to New Japan Pro Wrestling and I wrestled Kenta and Korakuen Hall, and was able to win the New Japan Strong Openweight Championship and then to do the G1,” he recalled. “I remember in high school - we’re supposed to be reading whatever we were in class, but I’m reading a wrestling magazine. I’m reading about the G1. I remember watching one of my favorite matches of all time, Keiji Muto versus Masahiro Chono from the first G1 in 1999. I remember looking out of class out the window daydreaming about being in the G1. And then when I got to do it, I was like, this is way too weird. This is not real. I feel like I’m going to go to bed one day and I’m going to wake up and I’m going to be 19 or 20 years old again and my mother is gonna say ‘you gotta get to work, let’s go.’ I’m just waiting for that moment.”

Being a champion in three companies and two continents is a reflection of Kingston’s passion for the sport.

“I’m not passionate about a lot of things in my life. But for wrestling, I’ve been passionate since I was nine years old. I hope people see that and understand that it takes that kind of passion to be a champion, let alone a champion of three companies,” he said. “It takes passion, takes heart, fight, and spirit.”

The Mad King said that passion has pushed him to continue along his path, through the good, bad, and ugly.

“If you don’t want to be a top guy, if you don’t push for that, then what’s the point of being in any sport? If you play in the NFL, if you’re not trying to get to the Super Bowl, then why are you sitting there - collecting money? Where’s the competitive spirit?” he said.

He said things got emotional after his marquee match with Jon Moxley at AEW World’s End last December, where Kingston was crowned the first-ever AEW Continental Champion and inaugural American Triple Crown Champion for holding all three titles. Bryce Remsburg officiated the match, the former senior official at Chikara.

“After my match with Mox at World’s End, all three of us looked at each other and said ‘well, that was a trip.’ Because me and Mox used to wrestle in New York in front of like 50 people. Killing each other in front of nobody. And now we’re with, I don’t know, 15-20,000 people at the pay-per-view?” Kingston said. “Bryce is an emotional guy. So he got a little teared up and I made fun of him about it.”

Now, “the” World Championship is next in Kingston’s sights.

“When I become the world champion - and I say ‘the.’ I hate when people call it the AEW World Champion, cuz it means it’s just a world champion for that company. No. To me, for not just our company, but for wrestling in general, when you’re AEW World Champion, it’s the championship. So when I get that, and I’m putting it out in the universe so hopefully the universe gives back, then I’ll sit there and go ‘I’m that guy. I’m standing on my business now,’” he said.

The underlying message remains the same for Kingston on any continent he performs on; pro wrestling is about evoking emotion from the fans.

“We’re all human beings. And we all have the same emotions. Professional wrestling fans in general understand emotion, struggle, pain. They understand that this guy is not a good person or this guy is or boo this guy, cheer this guy. I tell people I’m not in the pro wrestling business. Pro wrestling is a sport I’m in, but I’m in the emotion business. That’s our job. To pull the emotion out of any fan,” he said. “I want people to care. I want people to cry when I win or lose. Even if they hate me and want me to lose I love it. Because you’re feeling something and I want you to feel something because that’s what I felt as a kid.”

“Whether you hate me or love me, think I’m good or bad, that don’t bother me. What bothers me is when you don’t care. That’s what will keep me up late at night.”

He said when it comes to the internet wrestling community’s constant back and forth about AEW versus WWE, there is middle ground.

“I’m gonna say AEW is the best because they’re the ones who pay me and they’re the ones that took a chance on me,” he said. “But I want both companies to have four or five million people watching. I want eight million people watching both shows because I want this business to survive. Because this business, people take this lightly, but in all honesty, this business saved my life.”

Square in the sights of the next generation of fans and wrestling hopefuls, Kingston says he looks forward to defending his Triple Crown and giving younger guys a shot.

“For the talent, just respect what we do. Respect that you’re getting into a sport that’s been around before you and will be here after you. Respect it and treat it with the respect it deserves,” he said. “For the fans, young fans, old fans, new fans, just enjoy it. Have fun. This is what it’s supposed to be for you guys. We’re here for you. Cheer, cry, boo, whatever, just enjoy it. Don’t think too much about things.”

You can catch The Mad King when AEW Dynamite comes to the UNO Lakefront Arena on Wed., Jan. 31. Tickets are available at AEWTix.com.

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