“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. Last week on Busted Open Radio he explained what his current life is like, even riding this newfound wave of popularity. In typical Eddie Kingston fashion he’s quick to note that finally making it, achieving his dream of being in a major wrestling company, finally getting paid what he’s worth - none of that washes away his past regrets, and his current depression. That’s what Kingston has tapped into, and it’s made the fans feel they can be vulnerable too. We all deal with them, we all have those who doubt us, we all have people along the road who look down on us. The anxiety about reaching our potential, the feeling of inadequacy that we’ve squandered time, regrets wondering what could have been if life took a different path. It’s because we can all see ourselves in Kingston, if we’re being honest with ourselves. Each have the skill to take an audience and put them in the palm of their hand, but nobody expected them to achieve the impossible: Create a scenario where fans legitimately wanted to see Kingston beat Punk. Kingston and Punk together in the ring on the mic was always going to be magic. Punk returned after a seven year absence from wrestling he’s been cheered like a conquering king returned to claim his crown, and in five minutes of truth and honestly Kingston and Punk turned the crowd, flipped the script, and had the people behind the underdog. The purpose of the face-to-face promo was to build and hype their match at AEW’s next pay per view, Full Gear, but it achieved so much more. Immediately it was being hailed as one of the greatest promos in wrestling history. Punk, known himself for mixing fiction with reality in his work, and the two created drama as good as anything you’ll see on TV period, scripted or otherwise. On Friday night’s AEW Rampage Kingston stepped in the ring with legend C.M. Now Kingston’s life and his turmoils are being perfectly blended with story with intoxicating results. I’ve lost too many friends in this business to shut my mouth and bury all of these emotions with pills and booze.” If I wasn’t on Zoloft, if I wasn’t getting help for my mental health, if I was too afraid to talk about this stuff, I’d end up killing myself. “And that’s why I’m telling this story, and I’m not pulling any punches, and all the old-school guys who don’t want to hear this stuff, and think that we shouldn’t talk about it, those guys can respectfully kiss my ass. In an industry that so often presents its characters as super-human, Kingston is telling everyone that he’s absolutely human, and flawed, and still fighting every single day. He’s rough around the edges, talks about his history of fighting in the streets, but seamlessly marries that by opening talking about the demons he’s confronted along the way, most notably his mental illness - which is unheard of in the world of professional wrestling. On the microphone he’s every bit the man he is every day. The beauty of what Kingston is doing in the ring is perfectly marrying his words and actions. Every word of the piece is dripping in the tone, realism and reality that has quickly turned him into one of wrestling’s most unmissable stars. Kingston’s magnum opus came on Tuesday when he wrote his story for The Player’s Tribune, a sweeping epic about his struggles with mental health, drinking, and never reaching the lofty goals he set for himself in his 20s. Kingston isn’t blessed with a physique like The Rock, or the technical proficiency of greats like Bret Hart - but he’s connecting with fans around the world in a different way, by leveraging something in short supply: Honesty and vulnerability. Eddie Kingston, a 39-year-old pro wrestler who struggled to make it big is finally ascending to the heights he deserves in All Elite Wrestling.
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