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EDDIE KINGSTON DISCUSSES BEING A NEW YORKER MAIN EVENTING AEW RAMPAGE IN NYC, JON MOXLEY, DANIELSON VS. OMEGA, PUNK, THE ENERGY AT ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM AND MUCH MORE

In the wake of Wednesday night's AEW Dynamite Grand Slam and before tonight's Rampage Grand Slam broadcast, PWInsider.com sat down with Eddie Kingston to reflect of AEW's successful debut in the New York market, Jon Moxley and more:

What it means to him, as a New Yorker, to main event the first ever AEW event in NYC, including the first-ever Rampage broadcast from New York:

"Man, I didn't even think of it like that until right now, Mike. You're bringing it all out. When you're in the moment you're in the moment. Maybe I'm just a nut job, I don't think of the ramifications or anything about it, I'm just in the moment and I'm ready to rock. That's what used to get me trouble back in the day. I would fight first and then ask questions later, like, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that." I don't know, I'm in the moment. But oh, man, let me think about it. Damn, man. It's a big deal, Mike. How about that?  Wow, it's a huge deal and to be part of a company that I truly love and this is me not kissing my boss's ass, people can say whatever they want to say, but without this man giving me a shot, I don't know. I'm just thankful. And same thing, even though I don't like them, The Young Bucks, I don't think The Young Bucks get enough credit in my eyes. Because I look at AEW, and honestly I feel like AEW is The Young Bucks. Without The Young Bucks taking off from the independents as a team and taking off in New Japan, and joining the Bullet Club and then everybody wanting to join that stupid, superkick party, I'm just mad because I can't do one, but without them I don't think any of this is possible, man. Wow, Mike, you blew me away. Again, I just hope I inspired one person. I just hope I inspired at least one."

The atmosphere of the event: 

"I'm telling you right now, I thought I would know how it was or I had a feeling that I knew how it would be. I had no idea. The energy is the big thing, Mike. The energy from those people that late at night and just the whole show, they were up at 11. From 7 PM all the way to 12 AM, the energy was amazing."

Backstage at the show:

"You mentioned Bryan Danielson's name and CM Punk, and guys like that who have done this dance before. But those guys had smiles on their faces wide. They knew what we were in store for and they couldn't wait for us to feel it. So they were smiling the whole time. They couldn't wait to feel it themselves. Then you had guys like me who were once bitter. Oh, I can be bitter here and there. You have guys like me who just wanted to go out there and go and do it, and experience it. Then you had the younger guys whose eyes were wide and they were stuck, frozen a little bit. But then their excitement kicked in, everybody was on point. Everybody was excited. And by the end of the night everybody was smiling.  I said it at, I guess, the closing statement [at the end of the taping], I guess you could say, for AEW. And again, what I say is for me not for AEW. So if anyone gets mad at me, get mad at me not AEW. But I really felt like we took our flag, the AEW flag, and when we sold the place out originally, we sat our flag down. We put it in the ground. But with the key editions of guys like Adam Cole and Punk, and Ruby Soho and Bryan Danielson and others, and even though I don't like him, even Miro and others, we didn't just stick it in the ground, Mike. We put it in cement so it's not going anywhere. We put our flag in the middle of New York, in Queens.   We put it in cement, so we're not going anywhere."

Why he and Jon Moxley gel so well as a duo:

"Me and Jon never changed, that's why. No matter how much success Jon had and it doesn't matter where Jon went all over the world and back again, no matter how much money Johnny made, he stayed himself. Me, I stayed myself. And I remember when we first ran into each other at AEW. He looked at me, I looked at him, we were quiet for a little bit trying to test each other, to try to see if one of us changed. And we just both looked at each other like, "Oh, man, forget this." And it was us again. It was like we were back at the arena. We were back at Nickels [Taven, Philadelphia] having a drink with each other. We were still the same guys and that's why we are where we are with each other, because we didn't change and we know each other. And we get excited for each other. Also in real life, we get excited for each other in real life. And that's why, I guess you could say chemistry or whatever, but we're really friends, we bust each other's balls. Believe it or not, Jon's a very funny dude and I know a lot of people don't believe it, but he's a very funny guy, with me anyway. Maybe I got a sense of humor, I don't know. But we just stayed the same, Mike."

Danielson vs. Omega on Dynamite:

"Well, usually I don't watch anything that I'm not on because I don't care, because I got to pay attention to what I do. But I watched Kenny and Bryan. And I watched Bryan because I respected Bryan for years on The Independents, The American Dragon. That man was part of the original Ring of Honor guys with Low Ki and Homicide and Samoa Joe, and CM Punk and everybody. And I always watched Bryan. Even when I watched Bryan win WrestleMania 30, when he won those two matches. Bryan has been an inspiration to so many of us.  So to watch him back in the ring and go balls to the wall and wrestle, and pro wrestle, that's where he belongs. He belongs in a pro-wrestling ring. If anyone was born for this it was Bryan. And then seeing Kenny, I have to watch Kenny. Kenny is the World Champion, the World Champion. He's at the top spot in our sport, so of course I'm going to watch that. And of course I'm going to scout Kenny and Bryan a little bit because I need to get in the ring with those two if I want to be World Champion at some point. So that match I was fully focused on. And they went out there and they put on a professional wrestling match for 30 minutes on live TV.  I don't know, maybe I'm being too dramatic, but I don't remember the last time we saw, on national television, a 30-minute straight wrestling match. And I hope there's a kid up there watching last night and fell in love with wrestling, like I did when I saw Mitsuhara Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada, or like I did when I saw Bret Hart wrestle 1-2-3 Kid on Raw, or when I watched the Hollywood Blondes against Shane Douglas and Ricky Steamboat, or when I first tuned into ECW and saw all that madness. I just hope there was one kid, just one, that was out there and fell in love with pro-wrestling because of those two, because in my opinion, those two made the whole locker room fall back in love with pro wrestling."

CM Punk in AEW:

"He's a great addition to the locker room, man. I see him with the younger guys and he's talking to the younger guys. And yeah, I can see it in his eyes, he's happy, he's hungry. He's happy to be back in professional wrestling and he's hungry to show that he still is that, quote, unquote, "The best in the world." And that's a beautiful thing when you have that hunger and that drive and you're in there with younger guys, and you're going to push yourself to that.  For Punk, I don't want to speak for him, but just by looking in his eyes, he definitely has something to prove to the world and I love it. And I love it. And knowing Punk, and seeing him on the Indies, seeing him in the WWE and now seeing him in the AEW, I know he's going to prove it. And I know he's going to help out the roster. And think about this man, seven years ago, eight years ago, none of us thought Punk will be back in pro-wrestling, none of us did.  He, to me, again not putting words in anyone's mouth, I'm just speaking for myself, to me it felt like he was done with pro-wrestling, that's it, his passion was going. And now just seeing him back, and looking forward to his match on Rampage on TNT Friday, I just can't wait. And I can't wait for the people to see it."

Independent Veterans he would like to see in AEW:

"There's so many people but you already know, number one is Homicide, that's my mentor. I'm the godfather to his child. We are tight, we are family, so Homicide without a shadow of a doubt. I would do anything to get Homicide, and get that shot, because that man, he's done so much for New York, Mike, and you know that. And he's done so much for our locker room without even people knowing. I call him after matches. I know Santana and Ortiz call him after matches.  The other one, too, is a person I ran into this past week before Dynamite and I had a little training session with him, The Amazing Red. That's why we call certain moves the Code Red. That's why when I'm on commentary and elevation I be like, "Yo, Red did that first." The Amazing Red inspired so many high flyers it's ridiculous. The current or was once the IWP Champion, Will Ospreay, was inspired by The Amazing Red. So Red's another one, also it's me being biased towards New York."

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