You’re never going to hear Eddie Kingston say a kind word about Chris Jericho.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Eddie Kingston was a recent guest on AdFreeShows. When asked about Terry Funk’s comments that the wrestling industry will eventually circle back around to a more kayfabe-style business, Kingston agreed with that assessment.
“I think that the business is going backwards in a sense of you guys, the fans, you know everything already. You know the magic. You know there’s bookers. It’s all been exposed for years now. And I was a fan at that time when it was being exposed, and I was so into it because we had never seen that before.
“I remember ECW they were talking shit about WCW, and WCW was talking shit about WWF or whatever. And I had never seen that before because when I grew up in the ’80s and early ’90s, they did not talk. Not the big companies. Maybe the lower territories that I wasn’t getting, but the big companies never did. So everything got exposed. Cool, you know everything now.
“I believe people are done with it. People don’t want to hear us on Twitter bitching and moaning about what’s going on backstage. People don’t want to know how much fun I had with my opponent that night in the ring. I believe they want to see that, no, we still don’t like each other. They want to be lost.
Eddie Kingston compares pro wrestling to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
“And I put it in this sense: the Marvel movies, whether they’re good or bad. There’s been a lot of bad lately, right? They still make millions to billions of dollars. Now imagine, and I’ll use this example. Imagine if Captain America stopped in the middle of the f**king movie and said hey man, I didn’t really kick that guy’s ass. We’re actually going to go out later. I respect to shit out of him. He’s the stuntman. And then they will go, okay, back to the action. It would ruin it.
“So I believe now people want to go back to, I guess you can say, the kayfabe days. You know what I mean? And the reason why I kind of believe that too is I’m not gonna put over Chris Jericho. People are like, how was your feud? What do you mean? I hated him for seven months. It was the worst time of my life.
Kingston won’t flip on who he does and doesn’t like
“There are certain other people who I really don’t like, hence Claudio. So, I’m not going to flip that. Punk, I’m not going to flip that. People want to still be lost in it. They don’t want us to go on interviews or even this and be like, ‘Nah, man, I actually I had a blast with Chris Jericho, and I learned a lot from him.’ No, I didn’t, f**k him. I got stuck with barbed wire because of this motherf**ker. So that’s what people want. They want to be lost in it.
“Because nowadays, the world is f**ked. More than usual. Especially after COVID, the pandemic, the f**king protesting, and this and that, and like, the world will never be the same again after 2020, I don’t think. You may think you’re going back to normal, but it’s not. It’s never gonna go back to what it was. This is gonna be the normal for some other kids ten years from now.
The world has changed forever
“But this ain’t it for us. We’ve seen the other side. We saw what happened before the pandemic, we saw shit. It wasn’t great either. So people need an escape. So why the f**k am I gonna take that escape from you? To me, that’s just you being a mark for the f**king business, and that’s my Jimmy Johnson. And you shouldn’t be a f**king mark for the business; you should be f**king mark for the dollar signs.
“Be a mark for keeping it honest and real in there as much as you can. Because the people don’t give a f**k, you guys don’t give a shit If someone’s not happy with their creative direction. Who gives a f**k? Just do your job and make the people care about it because I bet you even if you don’t like it if the people care about it, they’ll put you on TV more, and then you’ll have more time to create and do shit.
“Me, I don’t give a f**k. Give me someone to fight. Let me convey that, and we’ll go. It could be anybody. Do I like it better when it’s a guy I like to hit, like Claudio? Yeah, I love it. But also, I don’t like a lot of people anyway because I think a lot of them are pussies. So I don’t f**k with people like that. I don’t f**k with cowards or people I can’t trust.”
READ MORE: Eddie Kingston Says He Signed A Four-Year Deal With AEW
What do you make of Eddie Kingston’s comments? Do you think the business needs to move back in more of a kayfabe direction? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit AdFreeShows with a link to this article for the transcription.
