Eddie Kingston Will Defend Two Titles At AEW WrestleDream PPV
Eddie Kingston will have to defend two championships in one match at the upcoming AEW WrestleDream PPV.
At AEW Dynamite Grand Slam in New York City this past Wednesday, Eddie Kingston put his NJPW Strong Openweight Championship against Claudio Castagnoli’s ROH World Champion in a Champion vs. Champion Match.
The two men had a hard-hitting battle with a lot of nearfalls while the crowd was strongly behind Kingston, who is from the New York City area. The finish saw Kingston hit a spinning back fist to the face followed by a Powerbomb for the pinfall win to become ROH World Champion for the first time. Claudio shook Eddie’s hand and handed him the ROH World Title. An emotional Kingston celebrated in front of the raucous NYC crowd.
That victory by Kingston over Castagnoli was arguably the biggest win in Kingston’s 20-year wrestling career, but he won’t get to celebrate for too long because there’s another challenger coming next Sunday.
On AEW Collision last night, Kingston challenged ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata for a match at the AEW WrestleDream PPV next Sunday, October 1st in Seattle. Kingston said that Antonio Inoki respected and liked Shibata. Kingston said he’ll put up his two titles and he’ll see Shibata at WrestleDream. Shibata’s ROH Pure Championship will not be on the line.
Coming off his monumental win at #AEWDynamite Grand Slam, the NEW #ROH World Champ & NJPW Strong Openweight Champ #EddieKingston will put BOTH Titles on the line against #ROH Pure Champ @K_Shibata2022 next Sunday at #AEWWrestleDream LIVE on PPV!
Watch #AEWCollision LIVE on TNT! pic.twitter.com/t8sFM6GQys— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 24, 2023
Eddie Kingston stepping away from indies to focus on title defenses
While Eddie Kingston is obviously focused on defending the ROH World Championship and the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, he is also going to take a step back from working independent wrestling shows. Kingston posted a message on Instagram about it while noting that he’s also dealing with a lower back injury.
“Due to being NJPW Strong Openweight And ROH Champion I have to come to the hard decision that I will have to stop doing Independents. Dealing with a lower back injury right now that I need to get fixed (and will ) so I can be ready for all NJPW strong shows and all three AEW shows. When my responsibilities as NJPW and ROH champion is over I will hopefully be able to do Independents again. I apologize to all but I just need to focus and my body needs to be ready for those shows.”