Eddie Kingston Fears AEW Stars Have Left Him Behind
Eddie Kingston has found life away from wrestling a struggle.
2023 was a banner year for Eddie Kingston as he finally became a World Champion when he claimed ROH’s top prize in his beloved New York. However, despite continuing that momentum into early 2024, Kingston’s run came to a shuddering halt at NJPW Resurgence that May.
In a wild clash with Gabe Kidd, Kingston suffered a broken leg, and torn ACL and meniscus as he lost the Strong Openweight Title. Due to the severity of his injuries, the star was forced to wait to undergo surgery on the ligament damage until his broken leg had begun to heal.
Kingston has been out of the ring ever since and he could miss another couple of months before finally resuming his career.
Eddie Kingston Struggling To Deal With AEW Absence
During an appearance on the Way of the Blade podcast, Kingston opened up and the mental struggles he’s faced while being away from the ring. The Mad King admitted that while watching Revolution he began to worry he wouldn’t be able to able to compete with the AEW roster when he returns.
This will probably get clipped or f*cking whatever. I don’t care… I haven’t really watched AEW. I watched the — not Dynasty. The pay-per-view before that, Revolution, and just, you know, I’m at a place right now where I’m trying to — my mind is like a minefield right now, with this injury and trying to get back, that I’m just trying to maneuver my way around these minefields, and watching that pay-per-view made me just go, ‘I can’t hang with these guys.’
Made me doubt myself. So I’m more focused on breaking that doubt than somebody I can feud with… And here comes the egotistical side of me. No one can hang with me if they wanna feud. A lot of guys are pro wrestling-tough, are pro wrestling-crazy.
I’ve done it outside. I’ve done sh*t that it’s real life. I’m not saying I’m from the ghetto and all that. No. I grew up in a good neighborhood but chose to be an asshole. I chose to go down a certain path, because I didn’t want people to f*ck with me. It’s a whole psychology thing. I didn’t want people to f*ck with me so I wanted to show everyone I was tough.
Let me go hang out in the tough neighborhoods. That was my mental at eight, nine years old. So I don’t think anyone — if they wanna go, I don’t think they can, to be honest. But… see, the yin and yang, the duality of Eddie is that I gotta first feel like I can hang with them and as of right now, as of today, Yankees lose, April 8th, 2025.
Right now, my body is telling me I can’t hang with nobody right now. I need time. So I can’t even think about feuding with anybody right now. First, I gotta get myself physically and mentally ready… I’ll get there. Trust me, I’ll get there. Has (*audio blurs*) my mind? More than it has ever. To the point where now I’m worried that maybe I should sometime, if I’m thinking about it this much.
But then, I talk to people close to me, I talk to my lady, I talk to my lady who just had ACL surgery herself. That’s what happens when you’re a black belt in jiu jitsu. For all those years, I tell her, ‘Stop doing that sh*t.’ But, I talk to my mother first, my father. I talk to people real close to me in wrestling like Ethan Page, Ortiz, monkey as I call him.
I talk to those kind of people and they — and Homicide of course. My girl said it the other day because I was flipping out about something about wrestling. She lets me sound off. Homicide called me right after and gave me a pep talk, and I said, ‘Why’d you call me?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know. I just had a feeling.’
He always does that. That’s why I call him my guardian angel. It’s the weirdest thing ever. A guy named Homicide, Dee. Dee is my guardian angel so, that’s what I’m going through right now and I will get there and then when I do get there mentally and ready to rock, ask me that question.”
Back in March, Eddie Kingston opened up about stress-related stomach issues that have been impacting him in recent months. By his own admission, the star was getting “stressed about dumb sh*t,” and it began to take a physical toll.
During his absence, Kingston has been regularly pictured training with former AEW and WWE star Cezar Bononi as he attempts to get back to full fitness.
H/t to POST Wrestling