Eddie Kingston has been out of action since May 11, 2024, when at the New Japan Pro Wrestling Resurgence show which he faced Gabe Kidd, his leg bounced against a metal guardrail on an out of ring suplex.
Kingston was supposed to take part in the Anarchy in the Arena match, joining Bryan Danielson and FTR to take on The Elite. Kingston tore his ACL and meniscus on the suplex, with talk it will take at least nine months to properly recover. We likely won’t see Eddie Kingston back in action in All Elite Wrestling until some time in 2025.
That doesn’t mean we haven’t seen Kingston in AEW since. Eddie, from the comfort of his couch, called out Bryan Danielson for the way he had been acting in the build up for the match against Swerve Strickland at All In 2024.
The big grey bearded Kingston called out Danielson, asking what Bryan Danielson had been showing up in AEW lately. Eddie called him disrespectful to the sport of pro wrestling and questioned if he even has the fire in him anymore.
It was interesting that Eddie Kingston of all people was there to call out Bryan Danielson and question his commitment to the sport of pro wrestling. Jon Moxley, his best friend and co-leader of the Blackpool Combat Club, was nowhere to be seen in helping Danielson prepare for his match against Swerve. Moxley made sure to show up after Danielson proved he did have the fire inside and won the AEW Men’s World Championship.
Moxley would later put a bag over Danielson’s head to try and suffocate him, something Eddie Kingston apparently pitched in the past to AEW and definitely wanted to do. Eddie also made this interesting quote from Nelson Mandela:
Was he talking about Claudio Castagnoli, who he has feuded with for most of his career and never trusted? Was he mirroring the cryptic words of Jon Moxley since his return? Was he revealing himself as the leader of this entire plan?
Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson
Eddie and Bryan have no real love between each other, even if Eddie was going to support Danielson against The Elite at Double or Nothing before his injury. Kingston was actually one of the last men to defeat Danielson in a one on one match before Danielson made his run for the World Championship, beating him at Revolution 2024.
Eddie giving Danielson some tough love to try to fire him up before the match with Strickland was peculiar, peculiar Eddie of all people would try to help Danielson. But was he trying to help him? Or was he setting up Danielson for a fall?
Eddie Kingston and Claudio Castagnoli
It feels like any suggestion of Eddie Kingston joining this toxic version of Blackpool Combat Club seems silly if Claudio is there. Eddie does not trust Claudio, and it wouldn’t be believable for those two to just be ol’ chums going forward. It would be even harder than it was to see PAC with him, since with PAC, it did make sense at the time. PAC was now without a country, with the Death Triangle no more.
It would be hard to believe in Eddie Kingston and Claudio patching things up, even if they have a common goal of taking over AEW. Even as villains they could never trust each other long enough to execute a plan properly. It would be the easiest place for AEW to break the crew apart. Make Eddie mistrust Claudio and the house of cards falls.
You know, Claudio sure loves to talk about the King though…
Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley
But Eddie and Jon? There could be something there.
Moxley on Wednesday night talked about egos running rampant in AEW. It reminded me of a promo by Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley in better times, back in May of 2021.
Kingston and Moxley were cutting a promo on the Young Bucks. “They quit on the boys in the back,” said Eddie Kingston, dropping his shovel. “Hey by the way, boys in the back, collecting your paycheques and not doing nothing? While Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks decide to go all carnie? Sitting all happy and nice? Me and Mox are not.”
Kingston said him and Moxley spoke for the underdogs.
Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley when combined represented two men with similar mindsets and values on the pro wrestling industry, and the last time they fought on the same side it was about removing the toxicity created by The Elite. It was about representing the boys, even when the boys don’t want to represent themselves. It was about something greater than just themselves. It was all of the things Jon Moxley said the BCC was supposed to be with Bryan Danielson. He already had it with Eddie.
But Jon Moxley is also talking like someone who forgets who is the King of AEW.
“I’m the one true king of these lands” said Jon Moxley.
One. True. King.
That would never sit well with the Mad King of these lands.
Jon Moxley said he chose war. If he’s a king, he’s gotta fight a king. Bryan Danielson may be the AEW Men’s World Championship. He might be one of the best in the world. But he’s no King. He’s a Dragon. You slay a dragon.
You go to war… with a King.
King versus King
I usually leave these as open questions but I started this with a hypothesis with the intention of breaking it in the end.
There is nothing I want more than to see the day Jon Moxley drops all of this Blackpool Combat Club, Josh Barnett Bloodsport, Marina Shafir bodyguard stuff and goes back to being buddies with Eddie Kingston. It was unfortunately at the tail end of the pandemic, and kicked off with the terrible exploding barbwire deathmatch. It was tainted, and the two didn’t have much success together. But they were meant for each other. They were meant to be together.
If not in friendship? In war.
Whatever Jon Moxley has planned for All Elite Wrestling, whatever war he plans to wage? The battles will be successful. But it won’t be complete until he can prove he is the one true king of these lands. And he can’t do that unless he topples the Mad King of Professional Wrestling.
Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston are going to fight in 2025 for the soul of All Elite Wrestling. May the wrestling gods have mercy on us all.
