Eddie Kingston On Dealing With Depression: ‘Without Struggle, There’s No Progress’
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Eddie Kingston lost a hard fought battle against Bryan Danielson on the 10/29 AEW Rampage, but it was made clear on Dynamite that both he and “The American Dragon” have their own battles with depression.
Before the brutal classic took place, Eddie spoke on Busted Open Radio and opened up about his battle that goes on outside the ring.
“There’s a lot of things I have to fight through to get to this point. It’s not just the physical aspect. Why, because my belly sticks out more than the next man? My fault. I like Five Guys. I like ice cream. My bad. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t wake up every morning and I have to deal with my depression before I even get out of bed.” Eddie talks about after getting through the depression he goes to the gym and goes to Muay Thai training. Everything can be a struggle, but that’s what Kington prefers.
“Every day is a struggle. I like struggle. I like it. Without struggle, there’s no progress. Edgar Allen Poe said it best. He said ‘The sufferers are to be blessed’, so I feel blessed.
“I work hard every day just to get past my own demons and depression. I have a lot of guilt for things I’ve done in my past. I have to deal with a lot of regret and a lot of karma that’s coming my way. So when people tell me about hard work, and they just talk about the physical aspect of it, that makes me laugh. I’ve always had a belly. Sometimes it’s been bigger than other times. It depends what I eat that week, but I still get up, and I still fight mental health, and then I fight the physical, and then I go back to fighting the mental again.
“To be honest with you, there’s days I wake up and I go, ‘You know what? Today’s the day I’m going to throw it all away and just punch a certain person in the face.’ I have that selfishness in me where I say, ‘If I have to feel this pain, everyone has to feel it’, but then I have to fight that. People don’t know that. The people who do understand what I’m saying, I hope they watch, I hope they follow, and understand that you can fight past that.”
Danielson advanced in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament by defeating Kingston in a triangle hold. Eddie tried to hold on, but gave Danielson the finger before passing out. Post-match, an irate Eddie interrupted CM Punk’s promo which seemingly has started the beginning of a feud between the two.
(H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
This week on a LIVE special Halloween edition of 2 Dynamite Dudes On A Rampage, Marcus and Dominic scare up some good discussion around AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage including a brutal classic between Eddie Kingston & Bryan Danielson!
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