AEW's Eddie Kingston Looks Back On WWE Tryout

It's difficult to imagine someone like Eddie Kingston in any other company other than AEW at this point. The Mad King has become one of the most popular stars in the company over the past four years, but there was a time where he tried out for WWE, with Kingston telling Kenny McIntosh of "Inside The Ropes" that it wasn't everything it was cracked up to be.

"A friend of mine hooked me up with it because he believed in me," Kingston said. "But I went there with this attitude of 'whatever f**k it, I don't really care.' I didn't really care, I was like 'they're not looking at me anyway." Kingston explained at the time of his tryout took place around the time that WWE were preparing for the Mae Young Classic, meaning that a lot of the people getting hired from the tryouts were women, which didn't leave Kingston with a lot of confidence. With that being said, Kingston wasn't bothered by the fact that his tryout didn't lead to a WWE contract as he already had a number of independent bookings on the horizon that would have paid him good money. 

According to Kingston, WWE were willing to offer him a position as a coach in the Performance Center, but he turned the job down as he didn't think he was suitable for the role, claiming that he would have been a 'gatekeeper' like figure to people he didn't know personally. One person who did stop by on the day was someone Kingston knew very well, and once the people around him realised that this star knew who he was, people tried to cosy up to him. "As soon as they saw me say hello to Kevin Owens and he gave me a hug, and a couple of other people that were there, next thing you know the next day everybody was my friend."

Please credit "Inside the Ropes" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.