In an interview with Sports Illustrated on Wednesday before the night’s episode of All Elite Wrestling‘s flagship show AEW Dynamite, reigning TNT Champion Cody Rhodes discussed what he loved about the Open Challenge every week for his title. “It’s important we access those opponents, the ones that do not work for AEW,” Cody told SI’s Justin Barrasso. “We need to always be aware of the world around us. One of the charming things about what we’ve been doing is we’ve been real and we’ve been transparent. Wrestling exists outside of AEW, we are aware of that. We try to be the best wrestling, and I really think we are, but there is great wrestling outside of us, too. It’s important for us to acknowledge that.” And on Wednesday night, Cody – or rather Tony Khan, QT Marshall, and Arn Anderson (the three men responsible for scouting Cody’s opponents – did just that when long time indie veteran Eddie Kingston made his AEW debut as this week’s challenger for Cody’s TNT title.
.@MadKing1981 is a mad man on the mic 😳 #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/qtfL17WwRz
— AEW on TV (@AEWonTV) July 23, 2020
Eddie Kingston began his appearance with a live microphone – and anyone who knows Eddie knows its always a risk giving Kingston a live mic, because he’s a truth spitter that can often be blunt. He began a diatribe that was eerily reminiscent of his promo a few weeks back when he originally called out Cody Rhodes at an indie show with ICW No Holds Barred. Eddie Kingston is an 18-year veteran of the business, from Yonkers, New York, who came up through the early 2000s indie revolution. He was a mainstay with CHIKARA, where he held the CHIKARA Grand Championship for 924-days, but earned his stripes in the hardcore scene, becoming an IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) World Heavyweight Championship, all while collecting even more gold in the likes of AAW, EVOLVE, and Glory Pro. He’s been a dominant force throughout the world, from Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) to Beyond Wrestling, throughout the UK with the likes of Fight Club: PRO, PROGRESS Wrestling, and others.
https://twitter.com/AEWrestling/status/1286090035515850753
And with a buzz around many other indie stars possibly facing Cody down the line, such as reigning IWTV Champion Warhorse, it appears that AEW isn’t about to close the pipelines to the indies anytime soon. “I love seeing when people that don’t work here put in an effort to try to get some notice or acknowledgment for the TNT Championship,” Cody told SI. “That’s wonderful. When we say it’s an open challenge, I think you’ll see in the next few weeks that we mean open.”
SOCIAL EXCLUSIVE
We hear candidly from @MadKing1981 post-match.Watch #AEWDynamite NOW on @TNTDrama or https://t.co/GdI7QAsxEP for our International fans. #AEWonTNT @AEWonTNT pic.twitter.com/7FUXLwRImk
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 23, 2020
Stay tuned to Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch AEW Dynamite Wednesday nights at 8 PM ET on TNT and AEW DARK Tuesday nights at 7 PM ET on YouTube.
