2022 has been a tumultuous year for All Elite Wrestling, both on and off-screen. With ratings and ticket sales plummeting, the backstage animosity within the promotion has risen, with the likes of CM Punk, Sammy Guevara, Eddie Kingston, Andrade El Idolo, and The Elite caught in the mess of it all.
For Kingston, it was issues with Sammy Guevara that led to a reported suspension being served by ‘The Mad King’. The issues allegedly stemmed from ‘The Spanish God’ calling Eddie Kingston a “fat piece of sh*t” during a promo, which seemingly wasn’t cleared with the no-nonsense New Yorker in advance. Thankfully, the tension between the two appears to have now simmered.
Discussing the backstage atmosphere within AEW, Eddie Kingston told Eat Sleep Podcast Repeat that having so many egotistical employees was always going to lead to such drastic events occurring backstage:
“It’s real simple, you have a bunch of people back there with egos. Some people believe other people don’t deserve to be in AEW, other people do believe they deserve to be in AEW, so when you have a bunch of men and women who don’t know how to use their words, things are going to happen in the back.”
Eddie Kingston Vs. Sammy Guevara: What Really Happened?
Fightful Select reported on August 25th that Eddie Kingston had been suspended from AEW, with that time having already been served, which explained why he’d been absent from television. It’s said that he swung at Sammy Guevara during a backstage altercation following the aforementioned physique comments being made.
The nature of the tension led to Ortiz taking his spot in a storyline that resulted in him and Ruby Soho challenging Sammy and Tay Melo for the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championships at All Out. A reported singles bout between Kingston and Guevara was scrapped from the pay-per-view, though was later booked for Grand Slam Rampage.
Subsequent reports indicated that the duo had put their beef behind them, reportedly shaking hands, per PWInsider.