Eddie Kingston held nothing back when discussing fans who body-shame wrestlers, branding then “evil and disgusting human beings.”
The issue of body-shaming recently crashed it’s way into the wrestling news after Booker T commented on Adam Cole’s physique. The WWE Hall of Famer discussed Cole losing weight while injured, which sparked a backlash online with many accusing the former World Champion of body-shaming.
Speaking during an appearance on the MackMania podcast, AEW star Eddie Kingston addressed the issue, and why he has no time for those who speak negatively about others.
Kingston explained that he’s had to deal with more than his fair-share of body-shaming his entire career, before pointing out that wrestling legends have always come in all shapes and sizes.
“My whole career I’ve been hearing it and look, you have to work out to be a pro wrestler,” said Kingston. “You have to have good cardio. Cardio’s the main thing and yeah, you hear it your whole life, you gotta look the part and all that. There was a shift where, you know, you had to be a muscle guy. There was a shift in the business and you know, when you have that so much, people get sick of it, and then, you know, you have to do different things.
I grew up on guys that looked tough. There was some muscle guys but there were also guys like Dick Murdoch and Dusty Rhodes and those guys, you know what I mean? That you — if you wanna body shame and knock anyone nowadays, would you knock them?… Guys like that who look like dudes that they would fight you and then came the bodybuilder era and a lot of those bodybuilders couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. Let’s be honest about it, you know?
“But yeah, you do have to be an athlete to be in this and you do have to cardio and workout and body shaming stuff? My man here’s my thing, if you don’t like it, don’t watch. If you wanna rip on someone or knock on somebody, okay man, I feel bad for you because that’s what gets your rocks off, you’re an evil, disgusting human being.
That’s all it is and I hope you never have somebody rip on you like that, you know what I mean? Because you’re a weak person so you’ll probably break down. But anyway, that’s me taking shots.”
The veteran went on explain that wrestling would be boring if everyone looked the same, and while he freely admits he loves junk food, he also trains hard to be able to perform in the ring. He added that the kind of people shaming wrestlers online, would be scared to get in the ring themselves and even run the ropes.
Turning his attention to Adam Cole specifically, Kingston said it all comes down to jealousy. Cole makes money playing video games online and is in a relationship with former AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker, in the words of Kingston, those on social media who kill to have that kind of life.
“When it comes to Adam Cole, none of y’all are as athletic as him, for those people that are saying that. Also, y’all are jealous. My man’s living the good life. He gets to do what he wants to do, he gets paid to play video games, right? And he got D.M.D., which a lot of these dudes, all these dudes on the Twitter would kill — you know, give up anything for a minute with her. Big facts on that. He’s living his good life man so y’all can keep up and be hateful and spiteful and let it eat at you because you do because you’re a disgusting person. He’s living his good life.”
It has been confirmed that Eddie Kingston will be in action at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door when he teams with Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino to take on Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara and Minoru Suzuki.
H/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.