Eddie Kingston Evaluates CM Punk’s Return to AEW, Punk’s Comments, His Issues With BCC

– During a recent interview with The New York Post, AEW’s Eddie Kingston discussed the return of CM Punk to AEW, why he’s teaming up with The Elite, his issues with Claudio Castagnoli, and more. Below are some highlights:

On his recovery from hernia surgery: “I’ve been dealing with the injury since September and I did the typical stupid wrestler thing, which is work through it and then I couldn’t work through it anymore. I feel a thousand times better. They told be six weeks. So I took all six weeks, took advantage of it. As I said on TV the other day, ‘Please forgive me for the way I look. I had been eating a lot of ice cream during my time off.’ I’ve just been able to get back to working out. I’m getting back to a better version of me.”

Eddie Kingston on why he’s teaming up with The Elite: “Teaming up with The Elite is what I have to do right now to get to Claudio. If people don’t like me and talk about it, I don’t care. Do something about it. If you don’t like something I’m doing, do something about it. Don’t just talk about it. Don’t just go to the promotor or the booker or anybody else in charge. Say it to me and let’s handle it. I’d rather be handling it in the ring so people can see me punk you out or whatever and trying to make money off it. If you want to do it backstage, we’ll do it backstage?”

Kingston on potentially dealing with Jon Moxley: “I don’t want to settle it in the ring with Jon. I don’t. I really don’t. But if it comes to that, let’s do it. This is what I get paid to do. If Jon wants to go that route and Tony Khan who books the matches wants to do it then I have to do it. If the boss says, you and Jon have something going on here I want it in the ring, let’s do it. I’ll go, ‘Yeah, all right.’ I won’t be happy about it, but I’ll do what I have to do.”

His thoughts on how CM Punk handled his comeback: “He did it his way and that’s the way wanted to do it. I expected it. I knew it was happening, knowing Punk and what he thought was right for him. That’s it. I see the reports. I see the clickbait on YouTube. But the locker room is not divided, not the people I hang out with. Punk’s gonna do what Punk does and if whatever Punk does helps this company, no one can say anything.”

On if there’s a feeling in the locker room that Punk’s comments bothered people: “Not me, man. Not my crew of people I hang out with. Maybe there’s that one percent that are bothered but the people I chill with, they’re good. They don’t care.”

At today’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II event, Eddie Kingston teams with The Elite’s Hangman Page, The Young Bucks, and Tomohiro Ishii against The Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, and also Konosuke Takeshita. Today’s show is being held at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.