Eddie Kingston is currently on the shelf with an eye injury, but he wants to return to the ring.
“The Mad King” has been out of action since his match with Joey Janela on the January 11 episode of AEW Dark, and he was pulled from his appearance at The WRLD on GCW.
During an interview with WrestleTalk, Kingston provided an update about his injury by describing how he’s ready to get back in action when AEW clears him. He described how, if it was up to him, he’d lace up his boots and compete, though he’s not 100% yet. “The Mad King” noted that he’s dealt with the same injury before, and he used his own methods to make sure he could work the next day.
“The injury’s great, I’m ready to go right now,” said Kingston. “If the doctors would clear me, I would go. I would just have to protect [my eye] the whole time. But I’m also used to that, like I’ve had this injury before. But out on the independents, you’ve gotta go. I gotta make money, I gotta pay my rent. So my eye before, so what happened was, had the match, things happened. It’s not ballet, plus we’re fighting. I like to keep it as realistic as possible. Blew my nose, my eye swelled up. I said oh, it’s an orbital without a doubt. I’ve had this before.
“I wanted to ask the AEW doctor, ‘Hey, is it alright if I cut it again?’ And he was like, ‘What are you talking about, cut it again?’ Well I cut it and then I just don’t do things for a little bit and I’ll be fine. He’s like, ‘No, go to the doctor.’ I was like okay. That’s what I had to do on the independents, you know what I mean, where I would like cut it a little bit, get the blood or the air out, and then go work the next day. It was work.”
As for the timeframe of his return, Kingston emphasized that while he wants to compete right now, it’s not his call. He explained that, as an AEW wrestler, he’s a “product”, and the company wants to protect its investment.
“I wanna come back now,” said Kingston. “I don’t know, this is not my call. You know what I mean, now I’m with a major company. It’s their call, you know what I mean? I’m now a product of theirs. They’re paying me, so they don’t wanna send out something that’s injured that they’re paying, or they don’t want to risk their investment in me by getting me re-injured or whatever, you know what I mean? I’m a product. I don’t mean to make it sound so cool, but it’s the reality. We’re pieces to a machine.”
As of this writing, it’s unclear when Kingston will return to AEW. He had been teaming up with Santana and Ortiz and feuding with 2point0 and Daniel Garcia. Prior to his absence, he was slowly starting a feud with Chris Jericho, who called for an Inner Circle Team Meeting on next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
The full interview is available here:
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