YMMV / Eddie Kingston

• Ensemble Dark Horse: Few would have predicted that this unassuming middle-aged thug with a prominent gut and a chip on his shoulder would rapidly become one of the most respected and beloved wrestlers in AEW.
• Funny Moments:
  • Eddie is one of the greatest promo guys in the world today — and he proves it by being able to cut a promo on literally anything. Like this cookie. Or this bag of Sour Patch Kids.
  • Eddie Kingston hates everyone but Lulu Pencil.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: It wasn't until Eddie's article for The Players' Tribune that people really fully appreciated exactly how much being signed by AEW (as a result of #SIGNEDDIEKINGSTON trending on Twitter after his match against Cody) changed his life for the better. After 20 years of grind, it was like he earned his happy ending, but at the same time it was also a happy beginning.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Despite the horribly botched pyro and an unaware Eddie still selling the "explosion" like he'd been covered with napalm, his running down to the ring at the end of the main event of Revolution 2021 to try and get his old friend-turned-enemy Jon Moxley out of the exploding ring, and then covering Mox with his own body when he couldn't manage it, was a character-redefining friendship moment- Mox may not have got his championship back from Kenny Omega, but he got his friend back following their heartwrenching feud the year before.
  • When he conquered his self-doubts and finally won his first PPV match in AEW against Chris Jericho at Revolution 2022, Eddie was so overwhelmed that he initially couldn't even believe it, repeatedly asking referee Aubrey Edwards "I won?!" while she confirmed his victory and the crowd cheered raucously for him.
  • After defeating KENTA to win the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship, the first thing Eddie did was to call out Mark Briscoe so he could challenge him... to beat Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor Championship at the upcoming Death Before Dishonor PPV that Eddie was going to have to miss to take part in the G1. Affectionately calling Mark "Chicken" and assuring him that it's his time, to do it in honour of his recently departed brother, former ROH Champion Jay Briscoe.
  • After injury ultimately kept Mark from facing Claudio, Eddie stepped up to do it himself at Dynamite Grand Slam III, putting his own NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship on the line. In front of a molten New York crowd, Eddie finally toppled his archenemy and lifted the biggest prize he'd ever held to date, the ROH World Championship. After the match, Eddie visibly mouthed the words "Thank you" to the camera and bowed humbly to the crowd, and in his post-match promo he dedicated his win to the late Xavier, the second-ever ROH World Champion, who had passed away in 2020 and who Eddie said had been good to him in the locker room. Then he said he was going to go and see his parents.
• Iron Woobie: Eddie has not had the happiest of lives. He gave everything he had to wrestling for two decades, for little reward, and a few times he's even been tempted to give up altogether. But he just keeps on trucking, kicking ass everywhere he goes.
• Memetic Mutation: Eddie Kingston addresses his enemies.^Explanation A title card used for a segment on Dynamite, which is frequently referenced thanks to how Eddie is able to sell a feud with just about anyone and the fact that he's basically enemies with the entire AEW roster, be they heel or face.
• Nightmare Fuel: During the Anarchy in the Arena match between Eddie and his friends (Proud & Powerful and the Blackpool Combat Club) and the Jericho Appreciation Society at Double or Nothing 2022, Eddie at one point got shut into a cargo elevator with Daniel Garcia and the two men vanished from the match for several minutes. Then, right when Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley were about to submit Chris Jericho and Jake Hager in the middle of the ring, Eddie reemerged at the top of the stage, soaked with blood and staggering to the ring with a can of gasoline in his hand, clearly having gone over the edge and intent on burning Jericho to death! He made for a terrifying sight, more resembling an actual zombie than a human being◊, and with no sign of Garcia you couldn't help but wonder what the hell had Eddie done to Garcia offstage! He even started dousing Jericho with the gasoline while Danielson still had him in the LeBell Lock, completely apathetic to the idea of immolating one his erstwhile allies (albeit one he can't stand) along with his mortal enemy!
• Signature Scene: His AEW debut against Cody Rhodes, coming out with a mic in his hand to tear a strip off the clean-cut 2nd generation TNT Champion and dare him to take on the Mad King at his own game by making the match No DQ.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Eddie Kingston's AEW theme song "Cold World" seems to pay homage to DMX's "Stop Being Greedy". Both are from Yonkers, New York.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The end of his "I Quit" match against Jon Moxley at Full Gear 2020 when, after everything he'd been through, Eddie is forced to surrender to Mox, breaking down in tears because he's not going to be able to keep his promise to his mother to bring the World Championship home and lay it on her lap, he's not going to make all his struggles worth it, he's talked a good game and he's lost.
  • Eddie's article he wrote for The Players' Tribune about his life, "Eddie Kingston Got No Business F***ing Being Here", is a brutally heartwrenching account of how hard he's had it growing up, how hard he had to fight to get into wrestling, which was the only thing he ever wanted to do and the only thing that kept him hanging on, his struggles with depression and panic attacks and the friends he's lost along the way. He credits his friend Larry Sweeney with saving his life by desperately reaching out to him when he was at rock bottom, despite the fact that Sweeney would take his own life only a few years later. He talks about how he was on the verge of quitting the business altogether until his brother asked Eddie what kind of example that would set for his newborn nephew? And he talks about what was to him practically a miracle when he got his breakthrough opportunity at All Elite Wrestling. Combined with a bit of Heartwarming and Awesome when you consider how much better he's doing now.
    It wasn’t until two weeks later — I was on vacation out in Montana with my girlfriend, and we were just sitting in the car, about to go inside her friend’s house, and I paused for a second and I turned to her and said, “Hey wait.”
    She said, “What’s wrong?”
    I said, “You know I’m signed right? I’m on national television. My nephew can watch his uncle on TV. Like, I’m really signed. I mean, 20 f*cking years in this. I was about to lose my house. I was about to….”
    And I just started crying. This wave came over me, and I finally understood what was happening, and I started bawling right there in the car.