Eddie Kingston On When He Plans To Retire, What Homicide Means To Him, Why He Called Out Cody Rhodes, Getting Hired By AEW

On what Homicide means to him:

"Well, first of all, he's one of the best wrestlers to ever do it. I think anyone who's ever shared the ring with him or locker room with him will tell you that on a personal level, I do this my family. He never gave up on me. He would yell at me, constantly. Still does. But he never gave up on me. And always believed in me and always had my back even when everyone else would tell him, 'Nah, Eddie's a waste', or 'Eddie's not going to do it.' He would always be there like "Nah, nah. He can do it. I got him, I got him.' I know a lot of us do owe Homicide a lot. And either we owe him because helped us on our personal lives. Or we owe him because he helped us in our professional lives. I look at our roster. And a lot of the top guys owe Homicide a lot. Because he helped them get over or, you know, help them, you know, teaming up with him or whatever. You know what I mean. He helped everybody. And that's his legacy to me is that he's respected and feared a little bit, because he's a little whacked out, you know, and that's why I get along with him. And he's respected and feared in this business. And he's someone that is going to be remembered, because we're not going to let that name die, because he's done so much for us."

Eddie Kingston on if he plans on changing his style:

I have to go all the way in or I can't do it. I can't half ass it. If I do, then I'm not giving the people what they want. They pay to see me do my thing. And if I back up, or if I half ass it, I'm not giving the people what they paid for. You know what I mean? I know a lot of guys focus on ratings and who's watching. But for me personally, I worry about the people who actually paid money to come to the show, I care about the mom, the dad or the dad dad or the mom mom, or whatever it is and their kids, because it's not cheap to come to the show. So when they pay for that, those tickets, I'm thinking about them. And what they paid to see. And now there's no slowing down. Nothing like that. How long do I have? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just gonna keep going until my body says no more. Yeah, I would like to reach 30 years because that's an old school number. Like a lot of the old school guys back in the day would be like, 30 years is what they wanted. So like I say, 30 but I'm probably gonna go into and so I can't walk to be honest with you. Terry Funk's the goat so I learned from him.

Middle school teacher Victor Taylor Perry will be showing his "Wrestling Club" kids an Eddie Kingston match this Friday at the middle school he teaches in New York City. Kingston was asked what match they should watch.

Kingston laughed and said they should watch none of his matches. He said, "Not the Anarchy in the Arena match where everybody bled everywhere. No, I wouldn't show that. Umm, any of my matches with Claudio and Mox and Bryan. I say just show them the Continental Classic matches. You know what I mean? Because those are my style of matches. Me and Mox against The Bucks at Daily's place at Double or Nothing is a match that even though we lost I had fun during it. It's weird. I don't know why they watching my matches, but matches like that. Yeah."

Kingston on the love he gets from the fans along with some of the negativity online:

"That's just a part of life. Not everyone's gonna love you, not everyone's gonna hate you. That's all it is. You know what I mean? For the people who do like me, love me or whatever you want to say, it's humbling. I'm just doing what I've been wanting to do since I was nine years old. So for somebody to actually enjoy my work and enjoy what I'm doing or even love it, it's very humbling. For the people that don't like it. I really don't pay attention to you because then it's not for you. I'm a firm believer, if you don't like what I do, then don't watch. Or wait for something else to come. There's gonna be something you like on AEW, We have a good percentage that are gotta like something on AEW."

On tape trading when he was growing up as a wrestling fan and how he was influenced by Japanese and Memphis wrestling:

"Yeah, Japanese wrestling and Memphis wrestling were very big influences on me. Tape trading was, you know, exciting but also very disappointing sometimes. You get that tape, and you've been waiting months for it. And you finally get it and you put it in the VCR? That's right, folks, a VCR. And then you got to mess with the tracking. Because the tracking is all messed up. Or sometimes you'll get the wrong tape. Then you gotta contact said person again and all that stuff. And nine out of 10 times they wouldn't respond. So it was always a gamble. But man when you got the right one, and it was actually good and no tracking stuff. It was like a miracle."

On getting hired after calling out Cody Rhodes at an independent show:

"At the time I was working, it was the first independent show since COVID. I went in there and Homicide my mentor was there and he's like, 'Hey, man, you got to do something tonight. This is our first independent show back, you have to do something. You have to say something today.' And I was like, Alright, man, I'll do it. The promoter didn't know. So I just grabbed the microphone. And I called out Zack Sabre Jr. Because meaning was supposed to wrestle in England before the pandemic hit. And he's been ducking me for years. And then I called out Nick Aldis because at the time, I was working for the NWA. And he was NWA World Champ. In my mind then I went, you know what? Why not? Hey Cody Rhodes, you got this open challenge, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I talked all this trash, and I didn't think nothing of it. And then I guess it got over on Twitter. And I get a phone call from QT Marshall. And he's like, 'Hey, you want to fight Cody?' I said, 'Yeah, how much?' Because at that time, I was selling my wrestling gear to pay for my mortgage. Because there was no shows running. So I was like, yeah. I didn't look at it as a tryout. I didn't look at it as my way in. I just looked at it as another payday so I can pay off the mortgage for that month, and then I'll figure out what I can do next month. That's the way I looked at it."

This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co.If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.