On Saturday night, 17-year professional wrestler Eddie Kingston announced on Twitter that 2019 will most likely be his last year in professional wrestling (at least as an in-ring performer) “unless something crazy happens.” Should he ultimately retire at the end of this year, he will leave one of the US indie scene’s most underrated legends.
https://twitter.com/MadKing1981/status/1089395821018255361
A native of Yonkers, New York, Eddie Kingston got his start in 2002 with New Jersey’s Independent Wrestling Federation, trained by Kevin Knight, Black Jack Marciano, and future CHIKARA co-worker Jigsaw. He made his debut with CHIKARA that October, teaming with his mentor Marciano in the tag team The Wild Cards. While he would continue to wrestle primarily in tag action out of the gate with CHIKARA, by 2003 he and Marciano would venture into other promotions, like IWA Mid South, Jersey Championship Wrestling (now Game Changer Wrestling) and others, capturing the IWA Mid South Tag Team titles in 2004.
In 2004, he joined CHIKARA’s then-sister promotion, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he joined the CZW faction BLK OUT, winning the CZW World Tag Team titles on two occasions, once with BLK Jeez and again with Joker. By 2006, he had emerged as a new innovator of violence, capturing the CZW World Heavyweight Championship, and the IWA Mid South Heavyweight title in 2007.
In 2011, CHIKARA finally unveiled its top singles title, the CHIKARA Grand Championship, and that November, Kingston defeated CHIKARA founder and indie pioneer Mike Quackenbush in the finals at CHIKARA High Noon to be crowned the first ever CHIKARA Grand Champion, holding that title a whopping 924 days and defending it against the likes of Brodie Lee (WWE’s Luke Harper), Kevin Steen (WWE’s Kevin Owens), Dasher Hatfield, Sara Del Rey, Hallowicked and Icarus, to name a few.
Throughout it all, “War King” Eddie Kingston continued to thrive, as one of the toughest men in the sport, debuting with Germany’s Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in 2004, Ring of Honor in 2006, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in 2007, and many more of the top indie promotions around the country and beyond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r5vIKimyuM
In 2013, he would debut with All American Wrestling (AAW), the top indie promotion in a competitive Illinois/Chicago indie scene, where he’s become a former 2x AAW Heavyweight Champion, as well as adding the likes of Beyond Wrestling, Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), House of Glory (HOG) and more, to an impressive road diary of indies.
In 2016, he joined IMPACT Wrestling as the third man in “Cowboy” James Storm‘s new faction, Death Crew Council (DCC), alongside Storm and Bram. After a strong initial push, IMPACT changed management in early 2017, with Anthem taking over, and DCC was disbanded. Kingston was released shortly after.
He returned to IMPACT in 2018, this time as part of LAX and one of Konnan‘s protege’s. With Konnan out following a sneak attack, Kingston lead LAX’s duo of Santana and Ortiz back to IMPACT Tag Team gold, before the ultimate reveal he had been the one who took Konnan out. He brought back the original LAX, Homicide & Hernandez, to battle Konnan and the new LAX, but once the feud was ended, Kingston once again departed from IMPACT Wrestling. In AAW, Kingston teamed up with Trevor Lee, David Starr, and Jeff Cobb to form the new stable WRSTLING, running AAW for the past year. With Lee heading to the WWE and Cobb signing with ROH, Starr and Kingston just expanded the stable with new signees Curt Stallion and Jake Something.
Last December, Kingston made his debut with EVOLVE Wrestling and appeared to be on a path to rebooting his career once again, but with his new announcement on Saturday, it appears the “Mad King” is looking out for his best interests and looking at a new career beyond the squared circle.
