AEW All Out is a major show on what will be a packed Saturday for professional wrestling. There’s a lot of “can’t miss” action that will go down on both All Out and WWE Wrestlepalooza. There’s one moment that should get bigger than it seems heading into All Out and that is Eddie Kingston’s return. Kingston is coming back to AEW and it feels like the moment isn’t getting the buzz it should, not even within All Elite Wrestling.
Eddie Kingston may be the true “heart and soul” of the AEW locker room. While he may not be a “homegrown” talent, Kingston really represents what the promotion itself did to professional wrestling when it first started out. It started as the scrappy underdog that rose to be one of the most important voices in the industry.
Kingston did that exact thing as a part of the AEW roster. Whether he was in character or not, everything that Kingston said and did within AEW felt “real.” Fans grieved his losses and wanted to celebrate his wins with him. That is the type of icon Kingston became for AEW, and it is a position that is unique to him in a special way.
Knowing that, it is odd that Kingston’s return is set up this way. No surprise pop. No important opponent. Just Big Bill calling him out on a random episode of weekly television, and the match was announced moments later. That’s it. It seems like this was something that should have been a bigger moment. Imagine if Big Bill was standing in the ring after squashing someone else at AEW All Out, demanding a real challenge, then Kingston’s music hits, and he storms down to the ring. Probably with tears in his eyes because it is Eddie Kingston. Those are the types of moments that professional wrestling thrives on and creates at nearly every big PPV. But it will not happen this weekend when the door is wide open.
Eddie Kingston is one of the most important performers on the AEW roster. Fans are waiting to see him reach the AEW World Championship, and that will be one of those moments where there won’t be a dry eye in the house. He’s been out for more than a year with a serious injury, and now that he’s coming back at AEW All Out, the entire moment feels downplayed, which is a disservice in more ways than one.