A couple months ago, former CHIKARA grand champion and longtime independent wrestling mainstay Eddie Kingston was part of a massive group receiving a WWE tryout at the Performance Center in Florida. Heidi Lovelace and Kimber Lee are two of the wrestlers from that tryout group who ended up getting signed, but Kingston somewhat surprisingly signed with Impact Wrestling almost immediately after the tryout, and debuted on TNA as part of the new DCC stable.
In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Kingston explained his decision-making process for going with TNA, and it turns out it’s as simple as “they made the first offer.” And if neither company had made the offer, Kingston might have just walked away from wrestling entirely.
You had taken part in the WWE tryout shortly before showing up on TNA. Was the decision to go to TNA simply because they offered first?
I had the tryout, and then TNA called me right after the tryout, and told me to show up the next Monday. I weighed all the options and talked to a lot of people. I talked to my best friend, Homicide, and a few other people. I just turned 35, and after 15 years on the road, I just decided that I couldn’t wait any longer. It was whoever came up first at the time, I would have taken it. It was never anything personal against any company, I just felt that it was now or never. At the beginning of 2016, I said to myself that if I didn’t have a contract somewhere by the end of the year, I was going to leave in December. So it was already in my head that I had a goal, and that this is where I had to be by the end of the year.
So you would have left wrestling entirely if you had not received a contract? Or just toned it down?
At the time I was thinking that I would have been totally done, but wrestling is so addictive that once you’re part of it, it’s hard to get off of it right away. Just like any other drug, I would have weaned myself off it. Instead of taking every single booking I could take, I would have just taken a couple of places.
Kingston also said that TNA’s public financial and behind-the-scenes woes didn’t factor into his decision, because he doesn’t pay attention to “all that stuff.”
Kingston’s current TNA deal still allows him to work the same U.S. indies he’s long been a fixture at, like CHIKARA and House of Hardcore. You’ll still be seeing plenty of Eddie Kingston around, which is good news for everyone. Thanks to a wrestling company for making him a full-time offer and keeping him in the business!
