I think it’s safe to say that Eddie Kingston is one of my favorite wrestlers, probably in my top 20 of all time at the very least. The same could probably be said for a lot of other people too, actually. The man has an undeniably great catalogue of matches with a who’s who of wrestlers, some of which writers greater than me have no doubt talked about. So, in an added attempt to help further my exposure to the wider reaches of professional wrestling, I'd like to introduce everybody to a more… “loosely done” project, compared to the SMW watchproject i’m starting anyways. I say loosely done because I'm not really going in any kind of chronological or “traditionally structured” format, I'm just going to be watching as much Eddie Kingston footage as I possibly can and I'm gonna write about it whenever I feel like. Of course, inevitably, I'm gonna watch through stuff like the Kingston and Hero feud, and I also ABSOLUTELY plan on checking out the recent match he had with Charli Evans recently for St. Louis Anarchy as of the time of writing this but I wanted to show off some real heaters I found through simply just searching around a little bit. These are all matches that are freely available on YouTube currently, and you, the reader SHOULD go watch.
Eddie Kingston vs. JD Drake - AEW (02/17/2021)
Don’t we all miss AEW Dark? I know I do. When I found this match I thought initially that it would be an inconsequential, but fun squash match with not a whole lot of spice to it but this definitely blew my expectation out of the water. A good amount of hard, heavy-hitting offense from both guys in a short period of time. JD looks exceptionally great, seemingly giving Kingston a bit of a run for his money during the latter stretch following Kingston’s attempt at a Diving Shoulder Tackle being stopped by simply getting smacked out of the air. Drake actually hits a BEAUTIFUL looking Vader Bomb that only gets a 2, but definitely shocks Kingston afterwards. Nice little finish of Kingston rolling away from an attempted Moonsault and hitting Drake with the Spinning Backfist for the win. Fun, interesting little gem.
Eddie Kingston vs. Mance Warner - AIW (04/26/2019)
I’ll admit I'm definitely not as familiar as I'd like to be with Absolute Intense Wrestling, especially when I see the level of talent that’s gone through its doors throughout the years, but this match was a fun surprise. Eddie and Mance start off easy with just some hold exchanges, but I particularly liked the instance where, while Kingston had Warner in a hammerlock, Mance tried reaching for the ropes (with his manager The Duke pushing them closer for assistance) and distracted Eddie enough to elbow him in the face. From there, it devolves into a purely nasty scrap and it’s beautiful. Both of them throw everything at each other: slaps, chops, and ESPECIALLY headbutts. Good god, there’s a lot of headbutts. Big fan of the subversion of expectations with Mance running like he’s gonna do a dive to Kingston on the outside but instead just climbs out and eyepokes him. There’s also a particularly NASTY looking point during their brawl to the outside with Eddie getting his head sent directly into the ringpost, which got me to visibly wince while watching it. Eddie’s great at pure verbal reactions, something i’m sure i’ll be getting used to, with how many times he shouts some variation of “fuck you!” at Mance during the match. The finish, while just a simple “manager distracts the ref as a wrestler does their finish, allowing the other to get the win,” was done well enough. The Duke definitely played a decent role throughout the thing, not trying to be a deterrent to any enjoyment. The match was fun as a whole, although i’ll admit a particularly greedy part of me wanted to see a bit more violence due to being more used to Deathmatch Mance Warner, but what we got was absolutely great.
Eddie Kingston vs. Orange Cassidy - St. Louis Anarchy (01/11/2019)
This match was for Orange Cassidy’s IWTV Championship. I’m going to be echoing a sentiment from Joseph Montecillo’s video on Cassidy from 2021 here but for as much as I've come to appreciate Cassidy’s work.. I largely prefer watching him when there’s some kind of serious straight man to balance out the chicanery instead of the other wrestler trying to get down to his level. Cassidy vs. Kingston is, in my opinion, the best example of this. Cassidy already gets under Kingston’s skin from the start by his lack of effort in his chops and kicks, but also avoids Kingston trying to actually harm him. OC tries to take advantage of St. Louis Anarchy not having any kind of countout rule by just plainly avoiding him altogether: when Kingston rolls him into the ring, he rolls all the way to the other side of it. Eddie walks all the way to that side, rolls him back in, and he goes to the other side. Rinse and repeat until Eddie intercepts Cassidy as he’s rolling and attacks him. Eddie pulls out some great suplexes during the match that only manage 2 counts, at one point during his offense actually yelling at OC to “stay down and fight” before another pin attempt. Love the spot where Eddie does a big suicide dive to Cassidy on the outside, drags him back into the ring and Cassidy gets up to do a big dive of his own to Eddie. The latter stretch of the match following this spot is the sweet spot for me, with Cassidy firmly woken up and putting in the work to try and put Eddie away. OC hits both a lovely looking Brainbuster and Michinoku Driver after spitting orange juice in Kingston’s eyes, but neither put the big man away. Cassidy then tries hitting a powerbomb which gets countered into a Sambo Suplex and DDT, before Kingston hits a bomb of his own. The part where Eddie tried going for another lariat but couldn’t due to his shoulder slipping out of his socket was particularly fun, and the finish being Eddie going for a Spinning Backfist before being caught by a Mouse Trap rollup from Orange for the win was awesome. Great match, Kingston does very well as the straight man trying to get some level of effort outta Cassidy and ends up getting more than he bargained for, partly due to his own hubris. Cassidy’s character work is awesome, really this is a match that you should show to somebody trying to understand him.
Eddie Kingston vs. Ian Rotten - IWA:MS (07/08/2005)
This was an I Quit Steel Cage match. Holy fucking shit. Just, holy shit. Maybe one of the most raw and uncomfortable matches I think I’ve ever seen, and in terms of the Eddie Kingston performances i’ve seen the only one I think maybe beats it out has to be against Chris Hero in the Last Man Standing Match from 2 years later but EVEN THEN it’s only by a miniscule amount. Kingston and Rotten basically spend almost 26 minutes literally trying to kill each other while being filmed on some handcam... the match literally STARTS with Kingston attempting to brain Rotten with a chair as he’s entering the ring, before the announcer can even finish introductions. This isn’t a real “movez”-heavy match, in fact it’s entirely all grappling with the added assistance of whatever weapons are available. Mostly chairs and thumbtacks brought in by Chandler McClure, but also the cage walls and door. It should be noted that Ian clearly does not come into the match 100%, having a cast on his wrist and Eddie takes the opportunity to absolutely torture Ian for it by working his hand and attacking it with one of the chairs he brought in on multiple occasions. Ian, in turn, responds by attacking Eddie’s arm with holds or weapons as well, at one point literally BREAKING something in Eddie’s arm following an errant chair shot and very audibly threatening to break both of his arms a little bit after. Speaking of audible, the verbal outbursts from both men really sell it for me. Kingston basically doesn’t shut the fuck up throughout the entire runtime, calling Ian every name under the sun and getting into it with fans when he can, not to mention the near Tom and Jerry level screams of pain that come from both him and Ian. Ian also throws back his own share of insults, too, at one point while in a hold screaming something along the lines of how he’s gonna “kill Kingston, you asshole!” Gotta love the absolutely nasty headbutts that had me genuinely wincing on first watch. I would also be quite remiss if I didn’t mention how much blood Ian was gushing from his head throughout a majority of the match. Don’t get me wrong, Eddie gets busted open quite hard too (and you can see it near the end of the match with his formerly-white gear) but not to the amount that Ian is, because his face is literally entirely coated in red near the end of the match. I could see how some people might lament over the shoddy camera work, with the one guy holding the camera having to run to catch up with what they’re doing or the crowd that isn’t particularly all that great when they’re not uninterested in what’s going on as downsides to the match quality but honestly I think they help add to the real genuine feel of everything going on. This isn’t some overproduced technical masterclass match where both of the wrestlers uphold the Code of Honor™ at the end of it, this is just a fight where they’re both trying to make sure that the other man doesn’t walk out of the cage. Absolutely magnificent.
Eddie Kingston, Robby Mireno (& Ruckus) vs. Zandig (& Joker) - CZW (07/30/2005)
This was a Fans Bring The Weapons Handicap match that was in the first round of CZW’s Tournament of Death 4. Going from the uncomfortably raw nature of Ian vs. Eddie to this match, literally only a few weeks later, was such a hilarious tonal shift but god this match ruled. It’s basically classic 2000s multiman deathmatch shenanigans that goes a million miles an hour with heinous spots. It starts as a 2on1 assault by Kingston and Mireno on Zandig, loved the visual of John’s promo getting interrupted by Eddie blasting him in the back with a bundle of light tubes in particular. Zandig gets busted open quite easily by Robby peppering him with shots from a pair of brass knuckles wrapped in barbed wire, quite literally bleeding like a stuck pig within the first few minutes. Zandig soon tries to get some heat back but that dastardly Ruckus sneaks into the ring to cut it off and essentially insert himself into the match, double stomping him into some more light tubes. Gotta love the decent little pop for JOKER returning from Iraq temporarily to help try and even the odds for da CZW boss, baby! Somehow once Joker’s gotten into the match, the nonsensically awesome shit ramps up x10, but Robby Mireno gets ragdolled like a MOTHERFUCKER by Zandig in particular. Mireno tried to hit Zandig with a crutch on the outside but Zandig grabs the crutch from out of his hand and assaults him with it repeatedly AND ends up powerbombing Ruckus on one of the tables. Joker and Kingston headbutting each other with barbed wire wrapped around their heads was also such a gruesome looking spot that it got the most audible “holy shit” from me. The obvious highlight of the match is Zandig stopping Ruckus from doing his handstand kick purely by lariating him, only to throw Ruckus to another corner and do HIS handstand kick. It may have been the single most “graceful” move I've ever seen John Zandig do that wasn’t his whirlybird lariat. BLKOUT seemingly regains some control, with stuff like Ruckus doing a cool looking backflip onto Joker in the corner with a trash can draped over him and Kingston sending Joker through a pane of glass with an awkward looking kick. However it all goes to shit for them after Kingston is given an overhead belly-to-belly onto a file cabinet. For as much as I love the match though, I gotta admit the finish of Joker giving a Joker Driver to Mireno on some plunder AND getting the pinfall despite not ever officially being in the match (neither was Ruckus, but still) absolutely confused the shit out of me. This is really awesome though, a complete car crash with twenty billion things going on. Watch it if you want a pure adrenaline rush for almost twelve and a half minutes.
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