Eddie Kingston further explained that he doesn’t keep going for anyone but himself and those he knows want to see him keep going. “People who don’t want to see me? Then, bro, don’t come, don’t watch… I get paid the same regardless,” he added, pointing out that he isn’t in the 80s era of wrestling and will always be good despite who watches him. “I have pride in my work, so I’m going to kick… I’m going to kill myself [when] I go out there; which I always do.”

“I also put pressure on myself, now, which good pressure, good pressure on myself,” he added, noting that he gets a lot of motivation from those who do say kind things to him as well as the wrestlers he looked up to. “So, what motivates me past this? It’s… My girlfriend gets, and my mom, both of them get annoyed at me ’cause they always go ‘Why don’t you do things for yourself?’ (…) but when I think of pro wrestling, the pressure I put on myself to do right — not just in the ring but backstage — is because of [Terry] Funk. It’s because of the Four Pillars of Misawa, [Akira] Taue, [Kenta] Kobashi, [Toshiaki] Kawada, those guys, [Jun] Akiyama, you know, I mean guys I looked up to, [Mick] Foley, [Steve] Austin.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Cezar Bononi’s YouTube account and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.