Eddie Kingston Says Homicide Convinced Him Not To Retire, Go Out On His Own Terms

During an interview with CBS Sports, Eddie Kingston revealed that he considered retirement while he was out with an injury, but Homicide convinced him not to. Kingston has been out since May 2024 due to mulitple leg injuries he had at an NJPW event against Gabe Kidd. Here are highlights:

On how rough his recovery has been: “The hardest part of anything in life is the mental game. Pain is whatever. I’ve had eight or nine surgeries already.”

On considering retirement and being without his partner for a time: “I told her to get out and that I’d be alright, lying, of course. For two months, I was by myself. I wasn’t doing PT, sitting there days in the dark by myself. Thank God I don’t really drink much anymore. I coped with food, which didn’t help. I went from beating myself up, not knowing if I’d get back in the ring, and trying to be satisfied. I told myself, ‘Well, I reached this goal and I reached that goal.’ I was trying to convince myself that it’s OK to call it.”

On Homicide convincing him not to retire: “He didn’t get to go out his way,” Kingston said. “So he’d tell me, ‘Go out your way. I know this is not the way you want to go out.’ I want to go out on my shield. I want to go out swinging to the end. People can say whatever they want about Eddie Kingston, but one thing they can’t say is that I wasn’t defiant to the end. That’s what kept me going.”