Eddie Kingston returned to AEW programming in style on the August 8 episode of "AEW Collision" as he eliminated Jake Doyle from the Continental Challenge Cup.Before his victory over Doyle, Kingston had not wrestled on AEW television since the February 7 episode of "Collision," where he, Ortiz, and The Rascalz defeated the Grizzled Young Veterans, Bryan Keith, and Big Bill in a Parking Lot Fight, which also turned out to be Bill's final AEW match before his return to WWE earlier this month. Now that he's back on television and one step closer to a match at AEW All In London 2026, Kingston opened up to the AEW cameras backstage about how it feels to be in the tournament, thanking fans for inspiring him to keep pushing forward."I've been away too long, granted, my own doing, that's for you guys to wonder and for me to know, okay? But I missed every single one of you fans, and I'm not saying that being corny...I missed every single one of you because you guys give me energy. You guys give me energy to keep fighting when I don't want to. All those people that I met when I was doing the independents, when I was off TV coming up to me 'When are you getting back on Eddie? Eddie we need to see you back on,' and I told each and every one of them 'You inspire me.' They didn't believe me, well this is for all of you that didn't believe me."Kingston revealed that he personally called Tony Khan asking him to be put in the Continental Challenge Cup, without any knowledge of what it was, because he wanted to be the first winner just like he was the first winner of the Continental Classic in 2023. He stated that he's doing it not for himself, although he did say he will be selfish on occasions, he's doing it for the people that inspired him while he was away. "This is all for you, I fight for you in this tournament for you, because to be honest with you, if you hadn't bothered me I probably wouldn't have made that phone call."Please credit the original source when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
