Eddie Kingston Says The Feud With CM Punk Was Real, It ‘Wasn’t A Match’

In an interview with NY News 12 Long Island (via Wrestling Inc), Eddie Kingston spoke about his issues with CM Punk, which he said were real and that their match was actually a fight. The two fought at Full Gear, in a match that Punk eventually won. Here are highlights:

On his issues with CM Punk: “The thing with Punk, I guess you could say the ‘promo’, it wasn’t a promo. He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him. And we’ve had a lot of things to say to each other that we’ve never had the chance to say to each other. We’ve either said it to friends, mutual friends of each other, or we just decided to ignore each other or whatever. There’s a lot of other things, I’m not going to get too inside baseball on it, there’s a lot of stuff that went on behind the scenes that nobody really needs to know. But yeah, that wasn’t a promo. That was something we’ve both wanted to say to each other for fifteen years. That was fifteen years of buildup for both of us. So then you think ‘how do you follow that up with a match?’ It wasn’t a match, we actually fought. I hit him, he hit me, you know what I mean? When it was over, we didn’t shake each other’s hands after the match like people do. We didn’t go on Twitter and say how great and lucky we were to face each other. Punk don’t like me, I don’t like Punk. That’s it. That’s the end of it. There’s no promo, there’s no ‘this is made up’, this is reality and that’s it. When we have to get into the ring, we’ll be professional, but you know for a fact we’re going to take a lot of shots at each other. If the fans enjoy it, they enjoy it. At that point, with someone like him who I don’t like, I don’t care if people like it or not at that point. It could’ve been zero people in the audience, I was going to hit him.”

On who he doesn’t like in wrestling: “There’s certain people in wrestling I do not like. Punk is one. Cesaro is another one, the big Swiss idiot in WWE. I know him as Claudio (Castagnoli). I don’t like him, I don’t respect him. If he ever comes here, we’re going to have a problem. Or whenever his contract’s up. I don’t even pay attention to what he does. But guys like that, I just don’t like, don’t respect.”

On the AEW locker room: “They’re the reason, the Bucks, Cody and Kenny, they’re the reason the locker room is the way it is. They want to do it the old school way. They didn’t want to do it where you have to walk on eggshells and scared about breathing the wrong way. No, they wanted a locker room where you’d feel comfortable, but respectful. That’s what we have here, and that’s why a lot of people don’t mess around here, because they don’t want to mess up the good vibe or the more relaxed-ness of the locker room than the other place. So they come in here and if we see anyone acting up, we’re like ‘my man, we’re not letting you come in and mess this up for us.’ Because this is probably the best place that any of us have ever worked. So we’re not coming in here trying to mess this up. And if someone comes in here trying to mess things up, they’re usually out the door before they even knew what happened.”