{"id":108447,"date":"2022-01-16T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T19:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=108447"},"modified":"2022-01-16T00:45:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-16T05:45:37","slug":"should-eddie-kingston-win-the-aew-world-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/01\/16\/should-eddie-kingston-win-the-aew-world-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Eddie Kingston Win The AEW World Championship?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional wrestling at its heart can be as simple as two wrestlers squaring off and having a match. However, the best professional wrestling is when there is a story to follow that match, providing moments and memories you remember from it forever. Anyone can have a match. Not everyone can tell a great story and that\u2019s okay. But it is those who do that get the furthest in the sport. That\u2019s where Eddie Kingston<\/strong> comes in. A man who has scratched and clawed to get where he is today. A man who has exemplified what a professional wrestler is at its core. Everything that makes Kingston great is real. He doesn\u2019t have the generic physique with muscles popping out of his muscles like many stars of wrestling. Kingston doesn\u2019t have the athleticism to do things like a Ricochet<\/strong> or Will Ospreay<\/strong>. Nor does he have the technical precision of Bryan Danielson<\/strong> or Bret Hart<\/strong>. But what he has is the believability to go into each and every match as if it is his last. Over the past year alone, Kingston has gone from despised heel who was essentially in the role of Matt Hardy<\/strong> in the Hardy Family Office<\/strong> to one of the most beloved babyfaces in AEW. How did he flip the switch like that? Because he was real.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why he is in the spot that he is to begin with. We\u2019ve all read The Players\u2019 Tribune<\/a> article that he wrote. It\u2019s not difficult to understand why Eddie Kingston loves professional wrestling. If you are reading this, you likely have the same feelings as he does. Wrestling has reached the point where they don\u2019t always want the \u201clarger than life\u201d characters anymore. That\u2019s what some companies don\u2019t understand despite having a \u201cStone Cold\u201d example of why no one wants that anymore. Sure, there is more realness to everything in wrestling compared to the 1980s, but there isn\u2019t anyone like \u201cThe Mad King.\u201d After being nearly two years removed from his planned retirement, we sit here now in a reality where the best story that the hottest promotion in the world can tell is that of Eddie Kingston reaching the mountain top. But do they see that? Let\u2019s hope they do because one way or another, Kingston\u2019s road leads to (at least) one more AEW World Championship match.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Ayo, The World is Cold\u2019: Eddie Kingston\u2019s Understanding of the Reality Around Us<\/h2>\n
\"Eddie
All Photos Credit: AEW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you listen to what Eddie Kingston has to say, you never walk away from it instantly thinking he\u2019s wrong. Instead, you sit there asking yourself if maybe, just maybe he was right. There\u2019s a factor to what he says that so few have had in wrestling history and it\u2019s the understanding of the world we live in. Anyone can toss in real-world references into their promos to get a cheap pop but it is deeper than that. Using the reality that fans and people deal with every day is easy for Kingston because he has been there. There\u2019s the true story that he was retiring from wrestling because he was broke and needed money. Kingston wasn\u2019t going to go to WWE, even in their independent wrestling-focused era. That was never going to happen and he never really wanted it to. The closest we ever got to that was when WWE aired EVOLVE on their network for its 10th Anniversary celebration. Mainstream fans got their taste of what Kingston brought to the table in that one appearance and at the time, it felt like the only taste.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we have seen in his feuds with CM Punk<\/strong> and Bryan Danielson alone, Kingston knows who he is and it is no secret. Punk went at Kingston where it hurts but \u201cThe Mad King\u201d went right back with no problem. Same with Danielson, who dared to call Kingston \u201clazy\u201d and challenged him by getting into his head. There\u2019s reality used in pro wrestling every match you watch, every show that happens. But when the segment or match involves Kingston, there is nothing \u201cmore real\u201d on the card. It\u2019s raw, emotional, and downright captivating. It\u2019s why the fans have sided with him over anyone and everyone. His match specifically with Punk ignored the traditional lock-ups and instead went down the old school route of making it personal. That feeling of making it personal doesn\u2019t mean Canadian Destroyers and Poisonranas out of nowhere. It was all about the story that Kingston and Punk told. It meant gritty combat where nothing was pretty. Everything was ugly but made it that much better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t matter if they are the sexier name, the established main eventer, or the living legend. Kingston is the man of the people and that makes the story that much more believable and simply better.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Connection to Fans that is Natural<\/h2>\n

August 20, 2021. CM Punk makes his grand return to professional wrestling with one of the greatest reactions in the history of the business at AEW Rampage: The First Dance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

November 5, 2021. CM Punk is booed in favor of Eddie Kingston, who he is going toe-to-toe with in the middle of the ring in a war of words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n