Eddie Kingston On Pro Wrestling's Need To Break From "The Old Way"
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Sports, outspoken AEW star Eddie Kingston discussed the complicated topics of both addictions and injuries that pro wrestlers sometimes face.
Prefacing his statement with a reminder that he speaks unapologetically, Kingston conceded that things have been "done the wrong way" in the past. Notably, when wrestlers push down their pain mentally and physically, leading to premature death.
"I do things because I think they're right," Kingston told Yahoo Sports. "Not because other people think they are right, but it's what I feel and what I feel needs to be said in the moment. You don't need to agree with me, you don't need to like me, you don't need to respect me, but I'm going to do it.
"We've tried the old way, we've lost a lot of people because we did things the wrong way," Eddie Kingston said. "I've lost a lot of friends who have overdosed from drugs because they were down and out, didn't think they could get help. I've lost a couple of friends to suicide because they thought they were alone and they took their lives. We've done the old way. Let's try and break out of that now and save peoples' lives instead of just pushing it down the whole time."
He believes that AEW is making a positive shift towards creating a healthy working environment. A prime example of that is when Eddie's close friend, Jon Moxley, took a break from AEW to enter an inpatient program for alcohol treatment. Despite being booked to perform in the finals of the AEW World Title Eliminator tournament at AEW Full Gear, Tony Khan, without question, granted Moxley his request to get help.
"The old way, we never told a booker or a promoter anything," Kingston said. "We didn't tell them when we were hurt. We'd be there with a broken ankle and still going to work, tape it up and go because we were scared of losing a job or a spot. It feels very good that we have a team here, and that's the keyword, that understands it, supports us, and wants us to be both physically and mentally right. It feels very good to have that backing."