Eddie Kingston Refuses To Have A Mentality Where He’s Not The Best: ‘They Have To Go To My Level’
Eddie Kingston spoke with WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard ahead of his title match at AEW Full Gear and said his focus is on being the best wrestler in the world and the World Championship, and nothing else. When asked if he feels like he has to raise the stakes at all, he says he can’t have that mindset and believes others need to step up to his level.
“I don’t believe that I have to raise anything. I believe that they have to go to my level. I have a firm belief that I’ve been the best in this business for about 19 years and I can’t sit here and tell you that I’ve not been the best. I can’t have that mentality. I can’t sit here and tell you I’m not the best and I’m not going to be World Champion. If I do that then I might as well not wake up in the morning.”
Kingston has been praised for his mic work, possibly overlooking how talented he is in the ring. Kingston says he doesn’t care too much about what people overlook because he still believes he’s the best when he steps into a ring.
“You could say that but I really don’t pay attention to what other people say. I can’t control other people. I can’t control what they think or what they do, all I can control is myself. If people don’t think I’m good in the ring, that’s on them because I believe I’m the best. I believe I’m the best because I’m the most realistic. I can’t do a bunch of crazy moves. God bless those guys that can, and I’m not going to knock them because I can’t do it, but I’ll tell you right now that my right hand is better than any Paradigm Shift, any V-Trigger, any clothesline that Hangman Page throws. My hand is stronger than any of that.”
Kingston’s path to the AEW World Championship saw him use force and physicality to secure a title shot, something he believed he earned despite not being eliminated from the Casino Battle Royale. Asked if he thought he would have received a title shot if he had simply challenged Jon Moxley, Kingston said it would not have happened.
“No. No one gives you nothing in life. No one’s going to give you anything, you’ve got to earn it or you’ve just got to be loud enough to get it. I know there’s a lot of people in the locker room that are mad that I’m getting this title shot and I’m not in the ‘Top 5’ [rankings] but here’s the thing—Jon beat everybody in the Top 5 already. If they were good enough, they’d be World Champion. If they were good enough, they would have gotten under Jon’s skin to get a title shot. If they were good enough, people would want to see them in there, but they’re not. Am I lying? No. They lost to Jon and they never got a rematch because people didn’t want to see them. That’s it. It’s not my fault that I’m a fighter and it’s not my fault that people want to see me beat Jon’s ass—or vice versa, for the idiots who want to see him beat me up. It’s not my fault, blame yourselves.”
Eddie Kingston challenges Jon Moxley for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship at Full Gear tonight.
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