Eddie Speaks about how the TNT Championship challenge came about.
On July 22, the independent veteran made a lasting impression amongst fans and critics alike thanks to his strong promo and then match-up against Rhodes that followed after. Kingston’s name was trending with fans demanding that AEW sign the 20-plus year veteran, which eventually happened several weeks later.
So, how did Kingston get the opportunity to fight Cody Rhodes for the TNT Championship?
The 38-year-old was never in the company’s plans for the open challenge; however, speaking on Talk is Jericho, Kingston reveals that a joke tweet actually got him the opportunity to face the second-generation superstar back in July (Transcript courtesy of Fightful.com):
"I said, 'for shits and giggles, let me call out Cody' because was doing the open challenge. I went off and just said, 'it's an open challenge, but you're facing signed talent that aren't going to hurt you.' I'm friends with the Bucks and Kenny, so I thought I would throw a little dig, just for fun, nothing serious. 'Oh, by the way, the guys you run the company with, like me better than you.' People believed it. Retweets, hashtags, then I got a phone call from QT Marshall, 'you wanna wrestle Cody?' 'Yeah, why not.' I took it as another booking because I didn't see it as, 'they are going to be wow'd by me and sign me.' I'll go in there, do my best, and then go home," he said.
Kingston credits Cody, who helped him prepare for his TNT Championship match:
"I give Cody credit, he was so giving. He didn't have to do what he did. He could have gone on there and been like, 'you like to talk shit, we're going three minutes and I'm beating you.' Okay, that would have been my job," he said. "The promo was his idea. He hit me up and was like, 'what music and graphics do you want?' 'Why? I'm not signed.' 'You're coming out to cut a promo.' I went to him and said, 'don't take offense to anything I say. Whatever I say to myself is a shoot, because I have to get in that mindset, what I saw about you is a work.' People get sensitive when I say stuff, it's a work."
Weeks later, AEW finally confirmed that Eddie Kingston was signed to a full-time contract after the #SignEddieKingston hashtag trended following his AEW debut. The veteran describes the moment he got the call about the company wanting to sign him to a contract:
"Christopher Daniels calls me up and says, 'Hey, we want to bring you back.' 'Yeah, sure.' Just a booking, I'm thinking. I get a call from the competition, I talk to the competition," he recalled. "To them, they were trying to get me to coach for years. I said, 'I can't collect a paycheck if I didn't earn it.' I was going to go in there, coach, be bitter and angry about coaching, not getting a shot. (I would) coach these guys who love wrestling now because they are at the Performance Center, but not on the road getting paid in hot dogs and soda. I would have been so bitter and angry and detrimental to those kids. Now, they were talking about other things besides coaching. I had to weigh my options. I told people the competition hit me up. Christopher Daniels goes, 'here's a contract.'"