It’s perhaps no secret that All Elite Wrestling’s Eddie Kingston is a fan of Japanese strong style.
The Mad King has often been quoted as being a fan of vintage All Japan Pro Wrestling, citing the quartet known as The Four Pillars of Heaven as a huge source of inspiration.
The Four Pillars are made up of some of Japan’s ‘Mount Rushmore’ worthy talents: Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada.
However Kingston’s reverence for the Japanese greats does not stop there.
In a recent interview for Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Kingston noted another Japanese legend as his ‘dream match’, when asked about his future goals:
Tanahashi is number one. Stone Cold Steve Austin is my favorite American wrestler. So, to me, Tanahashi is Stone Cold Steve Austin of New Japan. He saved that company. I want to step into an All Japan Pro Wrestling ring because I loved All Japan Pro Wrestling in the ‘90s with the four pillars, Misawa, Taue, Kawada, and my personal favorite of all time, Kenta Kobashi. But I need this. It’s not even a want. I need me vs Jun Akiyama. That would be the cap on everything.
Akiyama is of course active, despite recently having had surgery, wrestling throughout 2020 as part of a trade deal to DDT Pro Wrestling.
He is set to challenge current K-OD Champion Tetsuya Endo at DDT’s Kawasaki Strong event on February 14th.
Kingston’s current home, AEW, already has an informal agreement in place with DDT (and sister promotion Tokyo Joshi Pro) with company President Sanshiro Takagi exclusively telling Inside the Ropes of how he would like to see Akiyama, among others, compete under the All Elite banner.
Similarly, DDT has hosted the likes of Colt Cabana, Sammy Guevara and of course, the current AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, so a meeting between the Mad King and Akiyama is certainly not out of the realms of possibility.