In hindsight, maybe putting Eddie Kingston’s return match second on the main card of a 6-hour PPV wasn’t the smartest decision.

Kingston returned from over a year away, recovering from a leg injury, and while I would love to tell you that “The Mad King” hasn’t lost a step, Saturday’s match made it look like he’s lost several. Maybe Big Bill wasn’t the best opponent. Maybe Kingston needed a better return story. No matter what it might’ve been, what it was was a kind of middling match. Two men plodding around, throwing punches at each other until Kingston hit a glancing backfist for a pin so surprising that commentary spent the celebration trying to figure out how to explain Kingston’s pitiful blow could topple a redwood like Big Bill.

By the end of the night, I’d barely remembered it had happened, and I didn’t even have any WrestlePalooza responsibilities. I have to believe most people who took in the marathon of wrestling on Saturday also didn’t quite register Kingston’s return the way that he and AEW may have hoped. After Kingston’s return, PAC returned, Jack Perry returned, Luchasaurus was revived from the dead (despite wrestling like a month ago), and all of it seemed to wash away Kingston’s return.