Eddie Kingston loves to rile up the pro wrestling community with his comments about WWE.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Eddie Kingston was a recent guest on AdFreeShows. While discussing tribalism in professional wrestling, Kingston said he talks shit about WWE to mess with their fanbase.
“When people get mad at me when I talk shit about WWE, I do it to f**k with people,” Eddie Kingston revealed. “None of that stuff I believe in. Oh, they don’t take care of people. I don’t know, I’m not f**king there. I just talk the shit because I know it riles people up.”
The Ring of Honor World Champion compares pro wrestling to real sports and uses his love of the Giants as a prime example.
“But my thing is, it’s like I look at pro wrestling like a real sport,” Eddie Kingston continued. “Just like I’m a Giants fan. And I’ll sit there and say f**k the Cowboys. F**k the Eagles. F**k this f**k that because I’m a Giants fan. Just like I’m an AEW wrestler, I’m an AEW fan. So I’m gonna say f**k everything but AEW, it’s not that hard.
Eddie Kingston loves riling up fans
“To me, it’s not tribalism. It’s like any other sport. Everybody wants to use these new — I’ve never heard the f**king word tribalism until like last year. Why are we trying to make ourselves seem more important with bigger f**king words? It’s a sport. AEW is my team. That’s who I play for. That’s who I represent. So to me, everyone else sucks. That’s it.
“I work for New Japan. They’re the best so everyone else sucks. That’s it. It’s not talking shit it’s just like any other sport. I’m a Yankee fan, Yankees suck! But to the day I die, I’ll hate the Red Sox. That’s it. I don’t even know why. I just do.
“No one sat me down and told me — I watched documentaries when I was a kid, and I was like, ‘Alright, I guess I have to hate them.’ That’s the way I look at it. And it’s funny to me when people get riled up. It’s just funny. All these people get riled up and talk all this shit. But guess what? You’re still talking about me. I made you feel something, dawg. Thanks, I did my job.”
Professional wrestling is all about emotion
Kingston believes evoking emotion in professional wrestling is more important than anything else. The New Japan STRONG Openweight Champion believes monkeys could be trained to get into the ring and wrestle.
“I tell people all the time we’re in the pro wrestling business, right? And I like to also say we’re in the emotion business,” Eddie Kingston said. “Because monkeys can do what we do. We trained a monkey to go to f**king space. We can train a monkey to do a 450 off the top rope. What separates us from them is emotion. That’s what we’re in.”
Kingston compared it to boxing and how Floyd Mayweather evoked emotion from the fanbase to generate the money he did for the sport.
“It’s the same thing with boxing,” Eddie Kingston said. “Why do you think Mayweather went all f**king full crazy? Because he knew that he had people who loved him and would pay because they loved him, but he also knew more people hated him, and would pay more to watch him lose, which he never did. It’s the same thing with wrestling. We’re here to elicit some type of emotion. So get mad about things, I don’t give a f**k.”
READ MORE: Eddie Kingston Isn’t Bothered By Critics Of His Look: My Concern Is Winning
What do you make of Eddie Kingston’s comments? Do you think the tribalism argument is stupid when it comes to professional wrestling? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit AdFreeShows with a link to this article for the transcription.
