When news broke that Eddie Kingston wasn't taking a tour around the indies as a sign of goodwill or to “give back” to his roots but instead undertook the endeavor because he was suspended due to a backstage interaction with Sammy Guevara based on an in-ring promo at Quake at the Lake that was ultimately cut from Rampage, it dropped like a bomb on the AEW Galaxy.
Though Kingston is known and frankly loved for his no-nonsense attitude and hair-pinned trigger that can turn an “Anarchy in the Arena” match into an attempted murder by red gas canister, going so far as to swing at Guevara for calling him fat in a promo felt out of character even for the “Mad King.” Quickly, fans started to point to Guevara's smarminess which, when coupled with his uber-heelish persona both on AEW programming and even on his own vlog, led more than a few fans to blame the “Spanish God” for egging on his foe for some cheap heat even if Kingston ultimately asked fans not to take it out on “the kid” via a profanity-laced tweet.
And yet, on Thursday afternoon, Guevara decided to get in on the action and release a statement of his own on getting punched in the face by Kingston; a statement that has only ratcheted up the heat coming his way instead of bringing it down.
Sammy Guevara's heelish response to Eddie Kingston will only anger AEW fans.
Normally, when someone gets punched in the face by a co-worker and the interaction results in a suspension, the puncher releases a lengthy statement apologizing for their decision to address an issue with violence. Kingston, to his credit, did just that, telling PW Insider that, “I was wrong for being unprofessional. That is the blind fact. He did what he did, and the public can judge that, but I know for a fact I was wrong.” What isn't normal, however, is what Guevara opted to do, which is releasing a statement of his own to Fightful that he explicitly asked to be directly attributed to him. Read what Guevara had to say below.
“As a professional you communicate things that you don’t want to be said (like other people I’ve been in programs with and have worked with Matt Hardy, Jericho and others) and I did communicate of what I didn’t want to be said in this angle and Eddie didn’t. But Eddie did not do the same and Eddie did not mention to me or the coaches or TK or anyone in AEW what he didn’t want said.
So after Tay’s and my match with Sky Blue and Dante I cut a promo on Eddie insulting Eddie and the fans as a heel. Which I know the thing everyone loves to do is hate Me & Tay so I’m the perfect person to play this ass hole character for Eddie to ultimately beat at All Out. I see what people say online about Eddie and his appearance. (Which anyone who legitimately shames Eddie for how he looks can go to hell, it’s the same people who shame me for being too small) so Sammy Guevara the character I could be the physical person playing that person that Eddie can shut up at All Out.
But Eddie did not do the professional thing and communicate to me, which if he did I never would have said it cause the last thing I want to do is hurt someone for real.
So after the promo I get to the back and Eddie is flipping out yelling “YOU CANT CALL ME FAT” over and over as I’m trying to walk down the stairs in gorilla making a big scene. People get in between us, Eddie tries to pie face me and he more like touches my face, it was weird. And everyone backs everyone up. It was unfortunate cause this promo was on a taped show and easily could have been edited (which they ended up doing anyways) i know this isn’t Eddie’s first time being aggressive and getting out of control backstage. I know he had to do some kind of anger management after this whole thing. This whole thing was very unnecessary but it Is what it is, Live & learn I guess, onto the next we go.”
Goodness, there is a lot to unpack there.
First and foremost, Kingston was scheduled to not only wrestle, but beat Guevara at All Out. That's news, and while not completely surprising – I mean, the fight in question did come because of a promo Guevara cut on Kingston on Rampage to generate heat – it does add some context to Tony Khan's booking philosophy for AEW.
What is far more interesting, however, was Guevara's decision to take shots at Kingston at multiple points throughout his statement, making light of Kingston's attempted punch, explicitly disclosing him being “aggressive and getting out of control backstage” in the past, and even dropping the like “I know he had to do some kind of anger management after this whole thing.” which is not only a sentence fragment but also unrelated to the sentence before or after it, which is never good in a paragraph meant to bring down the heat, not ratchet it up. If this statement was a quote taken from a verbal interview, that would be one thing, as people don't script out their on-the-fly answers to a question, but the fact that he explicitly wrote it out and issued it as a statement to Fightful means that every word in his response was intentional.
If that's the case, let's hope TK doesn't book a Guevara-Kingston match for All Out after all, or at least makes sure every red gas can is accounted for before the bell rings.
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