Eddie Kingston Talks The Possibility Of LAX Reuniting In AEW
Eddie Kingston joined Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone on the AEW Unrestricted podcast where he discussed his wrestling career before AEW, and working on the indies in places like Chikara and Ring of Honor. He also talked about his time on Impact Wrestling.
Kingston has spoken before about getting fired after his first run in Impact, but he later returned as part of LAX along with Santana and Ortiz. Kingston spoke about the LAX vs. the OGz feud in Impact and how it ended.
"What happened was LAX, Santana and Ortiz, were stuck in the mud," Kingston recalled. "They had no story, and they were busy jobbing out to Sami Callihan and his boys. Hey Sami, what's up? And it's not no disrespect. I love Sami. I'm just saying, that's what they were doing. So Santana was like, 'yo, Eddie in. OK, bring me in, and then the idea came that the original LAX goes against the new LAX, and Homicide's of my best friends, so that would be easy. Hernandez does whatever Homicide wants to do. I love Hernandez too, but he's a big goof. He knows what's up. Homicide says jump, he goes, 'how high?' That's it, and then they came up with the idea of splitting and LAX vs. LAX, and me and Konnan went at it on the mic, which was fun.
"I always loved saying stuff to Konnan on the mic and then kind of like mess him up, because I said something he wasn't expecting, and he'd be like, 'uh, uh.' So I really got off on that, and then he would like, 'you mother, you son of a b–ch.' And then we had that stupid Concrete Jungle match where the ring was naked. It was just boards, no canvas, nothing, and we're killing ourselves out there. Not a lot of fun, and the boards were popping up and we would pop them down, and it was an experience, I'll tell you that much.
"And then, after that, they came up to us and they were like, 'hey, we have nothing else for you guys.' And I was like, 'ha, not my show,' and I walked away. Other people were mad but I wasn't. I was like, 'whatever.' What can I do? What, can I fight every promoter and booker? Because if I did, I wouldn't be here right now. After a while, it's like, 'forget it.'"
Kingston later answered questions from fans on Twitter. Kingston has received much praise for his promo skills, and he was asked if he ever practiced his promos.
"I don't practice them. A lot of the stuff is off the top of my head, or if I hear a good song lyric, I'll build off that," Kingston revealed. "I always tell people, 'everything I say about myself is a shoot.' My opponent, it all depends on the person, nine out of 10 times, it's not a shoot, but everything I say about myself is, and the reason why it is is so I can put myself in that mindset that this is real. This is the moment.
"The guys I studied: 'Hot Stuff' Eddie Gilbert, Dusty Rhodes of course, come on, that's like a given. Any of the horsemen, of course. Jake Roberts, and then as time went on, it was a lot of ECW guys: Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Shane Douglas, [and] Taz, Steve Austin of course. Everyone loved The Rock. I wasn't a real big Rock guy; he was too pretty for me.
"No offense Dwayne, but you're way too pretty for me to cheer for. Even when he was a babyface, I was like, 'looks too good.' But yeah, those are the guys I studied and guys who I related to. I don't practice, I just kind of go with what I know. So that's why you'll hear me repeat a lot of things, because it's just what I know. I'm not trying to be slick and come up with a cool line or something."
Going back to the topic of LAX, many of the newer members like Santana, Ortiz and Diamante are now working in AEW. This led a fan to ask Kingston if a LAX reunion is in the works. Kingston rejected the idea, noting that everyone has to move on and there is no story reason for everyone to team up again.
"No. It's just being honest," Kingston noted. "They're busy playing touch with Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle. I got to move on too, Diamante has to move on too. We can't always just be, 'oh, keep the group together.' Santana and Ortiz, alright, I can bust chops about The Inner Circle. Look, I may not agree with everything Jericho does in The Inner Circle or whatever, but he's taking care of my boys, fine.
"Now, I'm not making a threat here because I don't make threats – I make promises. If Jericho messes with my boys, then yeah, I gotta get in there. But for right now, no, there's no need for us to get together, and there's no need for them to leave The Inner Circle, and there's no reason for me to join them, and there's no reason for Diamante to join Inner Circle or join up with me. We go our own ways. That's the way I look at it."
Kingston was also asked about more hardcore matches in AEW, as he debuted on Dynamite in a no-DQ match. Kingston pointed out that those type of stipulation matches should be used sparingly to keep them special.
"No, hardcore matches should be when it's serious," Kingston said. "When you do something too much, it just takes away from it being special. It's like if we have a cage match every Dynamite show; sooner or later, it's OK, it's just another one. The hardcore matches, and the Lights Out matches, and all that stuff should be saved. It should be saved for something special.
"Maybe that's the old school in me, but I also understand the younger guys. Everyone busts on these younger guys for doing all these crazy flips and stuff like that. Look, I don't judge it because I can't do it. You guys go ahead and rock and roll man. I can't do it, so I find it impressive."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW Unrestricted with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.