AEW: Eddie Kingston’s Long Road to signing with All Elite Wrestling

Eddie Kingston is the newest member of the AEW roster, and he’s taken quite the journey in wrestling.

Eddie Kingston has signed with AEW, making the 38-year-old Kingston the newest member of the AEW roster, and finally giving Kingston a chance in a national promotion that will showcase him at a higher level than any promotion previously. Just who is Eddie Kingston? Read on.

New AEW wrestler Eddie Kingston is an old school, journeyman wrestler. A throwback to a previous era where it wasn’t about how you looked as much as about how you performed and cut promos. He is the definition of a “Mean Guy” wrestler, bringing an air of toughness and legitimacy to every single promo, match, and segment that he finds himself in.

Eddie Kingston has been on the independent wrestling scene for most of the last 20 years, debuting in 2002 after training in the CHIKARA Wrestle Factory as a member of the Wild Cards tag team. Kingston made CHIKARA his home base for the next several years, even becoming the first-ever CHIKARA Grand Champion. Kingston also carved a path in CZW, winning their heavyweight title once, and their tag title twice. IWA:MS and PWG also played host to Kingston during this time, where he had various levels of success.

Kingston got his first taste of fame in wrestling working with Ring of Honor (ROH) and Impact Wrestling (TNA at the time), where he worked off and on from 2006-2014 (in ROH) to 2016-2018 (with Impact). While some would argue that Impact was his first real taste of national wrestling fame, the truth is that Impact, while once the second-largest promotion in America, was far from it by the time that Kingston arrived there. However, his work in the company with LAX was nothing short of fantastic, again adding to Kingston’s impressive resume.

In September of 2016, maybe inspired by Kevin Owens signing with WWE, Kingston attended a WWE Performance Center tryout, but was not signed by the company. Kingston, instead, continued to ply his craft on the indies and in Impact during this time, leaving everyone that knew his work asking, “How could they miss on someone so good like him?” He didn’t have the typical look that WWE goes for, but his in-ring skills and promo ability surely should have been enough, but Kingston took a different path yet again.

After seeing success in the NWA on their NWA Power television show, delivering great promos and in-ring action, it finally seemed like Eddie Kingston had found a home in pro wrestling that appreciated how great he is, including this incredible promo below that you have to see to believe.

Then COVID-19 hit, and production of NWA Power came to a very abrupt halt. Kingston and the rest of the crew in the NWA were left without work due to the virus, and fans have been left waiting for the upstart promotion with the decades-old name to return.

Cue All Elite Wrestling. Cody Rhodes promised that he would make the TNT Championship one to be sought after by defending it every week in open challenges, seeing the likes of Ricky Starks (another highlight of the NWA Power show, who has now signed with AEW), Sonny Kiss, and now Eddie Kingston answer the call for a match. Kingston went to war with Cody after delivering one of his trademark excellent promos and left fans calling for the wrestler to be signed by AEW.

AEW listened, and now we will get to see what AEW will do with one of the talents on the wrestling scene today. The dream matches we could see on national television with Kingston being there are many, but a feud with Jon Moxley comes to the forefront as one that would be a major money feud for the company should they choose to go in that direction. Regardless, Eddie Kingston has finally arrived. We’re in for a wild ride.