During an appearance on the Wrestling With Freddie podcast, Eddie Kingston talked about his promos and his mental struggles over the years:
“Ever since I was born, I dunno, I’ve been talking shit my whole life. You know what I mean? & to be honest with you, people are like ‘oh you’re so great at promos’. These are not promos to me. This is therapy to me. So all the stuff I feel in my chest or in my stomach during the week where I can’t let out. Like, I can work out I can do Muay Thai, I can have my girlfriend choke me out in Jiu-Jitsu which she always does. She’s a black belt, I’m an eggshell colour white. I’d rather just throw punches, that’s why I like Muay Thai. But the emotional stuff I cant let out until I get in that ring and have a microphone. So people are like ‘oh everything you say feels so real!’, Because it is.”
My career before AEW was one step forward, four steps back. Cus I would just shoot myself in the foot because of my temper and my other mental health issues. There was a period of time in 2007-2008 where I was on a roll, I was at all these big indies like Ring Of Honor, PWG, I was wrestling every weekend, 3 times, 4 times a week. And then I would just get in my own head saying ‘I don’t deserve this’, I’m drinking and I’m sitting in The Tombs in New York in the drunktank missing flights, and then I’d just come back again and everyone would be like ‘we’re so happy you’re back on track’ and then Id go right off again. Either someone pisses me off in the locker room and I’m screaming and yelling, or a Promoter tells me to do something, or a Promoter doesn’t pay me right and I’m going to cashbox to take the money from them. Then you get a bad reputation. Also my body, I’m not gonna lie to ya, I was almost 300lbs at one point cus I just didn’t work out (laughs). I was just fighting. So my career is just up and down, and I’m my own worst enemy. You know what I mean? So, that’s been my career. Even at AEW, there’s moments man, I tell people all the time there’s moment where old Eddie, 20-something, 30-something year old Eddie is whispering in my ear like ‘go ahead man, do your thing, blow it all away, blow it all up.’
